Woman, lover land in soup: Food exposes gruesome murder

Hyderabad: In a bizarre end to a well-planned murder, mutton soup served at a Hyderabad hospital exposed the crime committed by a 27-year-old woman and her lover. 

M Swati had allegedly murdered her husband Sudhakar Reddy and convinced her lover to disfigure his own face with acid and get a plastic surgery done so he could replace Reddy. She was arrested on Sunday.

Also read: Wife kills husband, convinces lover to pour acid on own face to replace him

Swati, a nurse at a private hospital in Nagarkurnool town of Hyderabad, was married to Sudhakar Reddy for three years and had two children.

Taking cue from Telugu movie 'Evadu', where actor Allu Arjun undergoes plastic surgery to resemble another character, Swati conspired with her lover Rajesh to kill her husband and get his property, according to reports.

The reel-like murder plot unfolded on November 27 as Swati and Rajesh, a physiotherapist, allegedly injected anaesthesia into Reddy, bludgeoned him to death and burnt his body in a forest.

Swati later smeared acid on her lover's face and passed him off as her husband to her family stating that he was attacked by some unidentified people.

Rajesh, who pretended to be Swati's husband Reddy, was admitted to Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad for treatment.

But the plan began to fall apart when nurses at the hospital offered Rajesh mutton soup, which he refused saying that he was a vegetarian. Reddy’s family members, present at the hospital, grew suspicious as Reddy was a non-vegetarian and he liked mutton soup.

Things became much clearer as Reddy’s family began noticing differences in Rajesh's behaviour and started testing him. He then stopped talking to them and started communicating with signs.

The family members then approached the police, which took Rajesh’s fingerprints to match them against the Aadhaar database. The result came negative, prompting the police to start and investigation.

Police interrogated Swati, who confessed to killing her husband and revealed her plans to present Rajesh as Reddy.

Rajesh will be arrested after he is discharged from the hospital, police said.