Man sentenced to life imprisonment for killing lover, dumping body in Suraram

HYDERABAD: In a gruesome incident, a young man was found guilty of murdering his college classmate and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the 1st Additional Sessions Judge of Sangareddy. The accused, identified as Sunil Kumar, was convicted on charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 417 (cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), and 404 (dishonest misappropriation of property).

The tragic event unfolded on April 5, 2019, when the lifeless body of Lavanya was discovered in a drainage area in Suraram Colony. Lavanya's father, Buddana Srinivas Rao, a resident of BHEL Ramachandrapuram, had filed a complaint after his daughter went missing.

As per details of the case, Sunil Kumar, who completed his BTech in Mechanical Engineering at CMR College, Medchal, had gotten into a relationship with Lavanya during their college years. However, when Lavanya started pressuriSing him to marry her, Sunil decided to hatch a heinous plan to eliminate her.

Deceptively, Sunil informed Lavanya's family that he had secured a job in Muscat and even provided them with a forged employee ID card to further strengthen his deceit. He then devised a plan to take Lavanya to Muscat under the pretext of an interview for her. On April 4, 2019, Sunil and Lavanya were seen off at Hyderabad Airport by Lavanya's family, who believed they were heading to Muscat.

However, Sunil had tampered with a boarding pass to make it appear as if they were flying to Muscat. Instead, he checked into an airport lodge hotel in Shamshabad. On April 5, 2019, he brutally murdered Lavanya by strangling her and hitting her in the chest with his fist. He then disposed off her body by stuffing it into a suitcase, which he subsequently dumped in a drainage area in Suraram Colony.

To further complicate matters and mislead Lavanya's family, Sunil sent messages from Lavanya's phone, making it appear as if she was still alive and in Muscat. He even impersonated a stranger, claiming that he had found Sunil's body in Suraram Colony. These messages were sent to Lavanya's sister, Geetha, who was coming back from Muscat on April 7, 2019.

The plan, however, eventually unraveled, and suspicion fell on Sunil. He was arrested on April 14, 2019, and subsequently sent to judicial remand. After a thorough trial, the court found Sunil Kumar guilty of the heinous crime and pronounced him sentenced to life imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs 10,000.