A Hyderabad court on Wednesday sentenced a priest, Venkata Sai Surya Krishna, to life imprisonment for the 2023 murder of a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

The court also awarded an additional seven years of imprisonment for tampering with evidence in the case.

According to investigators, Sai Krishna, who was already married, had developed a relationship with the woman, named Apsara, by making false promises of marriage. The two were reportedly involved in an affair for some time. However, when Apsara began pressuring him to follow through on his promise and marry her, Sai Krishna plotted to eliminate her.

On June 3, 2023, he convinced Apsara that they were going on a trip to Coimbatore. That night, they had dinner at Rallaguda and visited a gaushala in Sultanpally. However, in the early hours of June 4, Krishna took Apsara to a secluded area in Narkhoda village near Shamshabad and bludgeoned her to death with a stone.

He then transported her body back to Saroor Nagar, stuffed it inside a drainage manhole near the SRO office, sealed it with cement, and later filed a missing person complaint to divert attention.

Krishna carried on with his routine for days, hoping to escape suspicion. However, the police, who were probing the missing person case, eventually uncovered evidence of the murder. The investigation revealed that Krishna had even surfed Google on how to carry out the crime and dispose of the body.

Police arrested Sai Krishna soon after the incident came to light. During the trial, the court found compelling evidence of premeditated murder and efforts to destroy evidence, leading to Wednesday’s verdict.

Source: India Today