Hyderabad, June 22 : Cracking the mysterious death of the niece of Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy, Police have arrested her husband and booked him for murder after he allegedly killing her in “an inebriated” condition following a heated argument.
Police have booked Chaitanya Reddy under section 302 (murder) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of IPC after Kiran Reddy (26), was found dead in her house at Bharani Layout in Jubilee Hills here on June 18. Chaitanya was arrested last evening.
“The postmortem report and scientific evidence have come to the conclusion that the death was due to smothering and asphyxiation. Based on the various evidences that we had gathered, we have come to the conclusion that Kiran Reddy's husband Chaitanya Reddy had smothered her and committed her murder,” DCP (West Zone) M Stephen Raveendra told reporters here today.
The Reddys are a doctor couple. The Jubilee Hills Police had initially registered a case of suspicious death and later altered it to murder, after the victim's father Raghottam Reddy suspected foul play by her husband (Chaitanya Reddy) and his other family members. Yesterday, police questioned Chaitanya, his parents and other family members in connection with Kiran's death. They said they were sure that it was an unnatural death, but were waiting till the causes of the death were established in a scientific way.
After the autopsy report came out, police arrested Chaitanya last evening , who was remanded to judicial custody this afternoon.
Chaitanya while being shifted to the court alleged that police resorted to “third-degree” methods and he was forced to confess the murder.
Kiran Reddy's mother Bharathi, is the elder sister of Jaipal Reddy, the Union Minister for Petroleum. Kiran, a private dermatologist, was married to Chaitanya, a doctor, five years ago and they had a four-year-old daughter. Giving details, the DCP said the day before the incident which was shrouded in mystery, the couple had attended a party given by the victim's brother Sunil.
“On that particular night, Kiran Reddy and Chaitanya consumed alcohol at the party, however the accused was high on alcohol. He also picked up a quarrel with the manager of the restaurant,” Stephen said.
“This (quarrel with the manager) was objected to by Kiran. On her way home, Kiran told Chaitanya that she did not like it. After reaching home at around 1.15 am, Kiran slept in another room. However, the accused followed her and asked her to come back to his room, though she refused.”
“After this, heated arguments ensued between the couple and in a fit of anger Chaitanya pushed her and smothered her to death,” the senior police officer explained. “Chaitanya later went back to his room and it was only in the morning that he realised that Kiran had indeed died and being a doctor, he knew that Kiran had died but tried to cover it as a natural death saying Kiran was found unconscious on her cot and later shifted her to a nearby hospital,” Stephen said.
“It seems Chaitanya didn't intend to kill Kiran. But, he being a doctor, tried to cover up the murder and it did took us some time to solve the case,” the DCP said when asked why it took so long to resolve the case.
Chaitanya while being shifted to the court this afternoon, alleged that police resorted to “third-degree” methods and he was forced to confess the murder. “Police used third degree methods against me to confess to the murder of my wife,” Chaitanya told reporters. PTI
