72-year-old woman killed by ward volunteer in Visakhapatnam for gold

VISAKHAPATNAM: A 72-year-old woman was brutally murdered and looted by a ward volunteer at Sujatha Nagar in Pendurthi of Visakhapatnam district on Sunday night. The deceased was identified as K Varalakshmi.

According to police, the accused was identified as R Venkatesh (26), a resident of Purushottampuram. Apart from serving as a ward volunteer, Venkatesh was also working part time at a fast food centre maintained by K Srinivas, who was the son of the deceased Varalakshmi.

At around 10 pm on Sunday, Venkatesh went to Srinivas's house to handover the daily business collection and reached back to the fast food centre after a while. After concluding his daily business, Srinivas reached his house at around 12:30 am and noticed his mother lying in an unconscious state with gold ornaments missing from her neck.

Immediately, Srinivas alerted the police through dial 100 about the incident. A team of police personnel from Pendurthi rushed to the crime spot and launched a probe to ascertain the actual reason for Varalakshmi's murder. Initially, the police examined the CCTV footage and noticed Venkatesh leaving Srinivas's house on Sunday night.

The police immediately took Venkatesh into custody and questioned him about the incident. The preliminary investigation revealed that the ward volunteer had murdered Varalakshmi by pressing a pillow over her face and suffocating her to death to loot her gold ornaments. The deceased was shifted to King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam for post-mortem.

The police registered a case and further investigations were underway into the incident.