Man allegedly killed by wife’s relatives for marrying against parents’ wishes

In a tragic incident, a 25-year-old man was allegedly strangled to death and later set ablaze, by his wife’s relatives for marrying her without her parents’ consent, in Hyderabad, the police said on Sunday.

The partly-charred and decomposed body of the deceased, identified as S Narayan Reddy, a resident of Kukatpally, was recovered by police in the forest area of Jinnaram late on Saturday night.

According to Kukatpally police inspector B Kishan Kumar, Reddy went missing on June 27 and his cousin had lodged a complaint on June 30. “We registered a missing case and began investigation. Based on the call data records, we picked up a person Ashik for questioning. Based on the information, we detained two others – Srinivas Reddy and Kashi, who had admitted to have killed Reddy,” the police official said.

Investigations revealed that the victim, who originally hailed from Potreddipally village of Komarolu block in Andhra Pradeshs’ Prakasam district, had been working at Kukatpally in Hyderabad for the last two years, after completing his degree in engineering and diploma in hotel management.

“Reddy had been in love with his distant cousin Ravali for the last two years and had married her in a temple sometime last year, without the consent of her parents. The couple later approached the local police seeking protection,” the inspector said.

About 10 months ago, the Markapuram police in Prakasam district counselled the parents both Reddy and Ravali and made them accept the marriage. “Later, Ravali’s parents took her home saying they would arrange a wedding reception. Since then, they had been refusing to send her back to him,” the police said.

Having failed to bring his wife back home, Reddy recently filed a petition in the Telangana state high court. Even as the petition was pending, Ravali’s parents hatched a plan to eliminate Reddy, so that they can get her married to some other groom of their choice.

“On June 27, Ravali’s relative Srinivas Reddy, along with two others – Kashi and Ashik, took Reddy to some other place in the name of talks. There, they strangled him to death, took the body to the Jinnaram forests and burnt the body,” the inspector said.

The police also took Ravali’s father Kandula Venkateshwar Reddy into custody for questioning. “The body was shifted to Gandhi hospital for post-mortem,” the inspector added.