The Pendurthy police in Andhra arrested a jawan from the Indian Army in Visakhapatnam, and charged him for the alleged murder of a 60-year-old widow on June 13.
The accused, identified as Lenka Mohana Rao (26), was reported to be a Nayak in in the Military Engineering Group of the Indian Army at Bangalore and a native of Nellimarla in Vizianagaram district.
He had reportedly come home for vacation last year, but did not report back to duty.
The police said that Mohana knew the deceased, a widow named Mahanti Ramalakshmi.
“Mohana is addicted to vices and has affairs with many women. He had taken several loans from people, but could not repay them. One Joggunaidu from Nellimarla, brother-in-law of the deceased, is a friend of Mohana Rao. He and Joggunaidu went to Rakmalakshmi’s house two months ago, when she suffered a leg fracture. He realised that the woman was staying alone and had some property,” DCP (Crimes) T Ravi Kumar Murthy told The New Indian Express.
Media reports suggest that the accused was married to a girl from Akkayyapalem last month, even has he had allegedly borrowed Rs 40,000 from another woman, and promised to marry her.
The multiple illicit relationships landed him in debt, and he planned to overcome his financial problems by robbing Ramalakshmi, the police said.
The police said that Mohana went to Ramalakshmi’s house on June 13, and planned to throw chilli powder on the victim. However, the victim recognised him, and resisted, following which he hacked her to death and stole gold ornaments weighing 170 grams and Rs 30,000 in cash.
Parked bike led to arrest
The reason that the Visakhapatnam police solved the murder in six days, was because of a clue about a bike parked at the victim's place.
For days, police did not get a clue in the case, until they got to know that a black motorcycle bearing the word 'Mahanti' on the number plate was parked near victim’s house on the day of the murder, from 11.50 am to 1pm, the Times of India reported.
“This gave us leads to track the accused. During questioning, Jogunaidu told us that the vehicle belonged to him and he gave it to Mohan Rao on that day. We could trace Mohan Rao by tracking his old cell number and social media account and arrested him,” DCP Ravi Kumar told The Hindu.