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Nearly a month after his wedding, 32-year-old Ganta Tejeshwar was found dead in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool, fatally wounded and dumped in a drain by men he thought were his friends. Now, police say his wife and her lover had been plotting his murder for months, in a case that bears striking similarities to another ‘honeymoon killing’ that recently shocked the country.
Ten days after the murder, Telangana police announced the arrests of Tejeshwar’s newlywed wife, Aishwarya (23), and a bank manager, Tirumal Rao (35), with whom she had been in a relationship since before the wedding. Police also arrested six others in the case, including Aishwarya’s mother and Tirumal’s father.
The case has drawn widespread attention in Telangana, especially due to its similarities with the Meghalaya honeymoon murder case, in which Sonam Raghuvanshi was arrested for allegedly killing her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, with the help of her boyfriend Raj Kushwaha and hired accomplices.
“Before the nation could forget the Meghalaya honeymoon murder case involving a newlywed couple from Madhya Pradesh, in a similar case, within a month of their wedding, a woman has killed her husband with her lover’s help,” said Jogulamba Gadwal Superintendent of Police (SP) T Srinivasa Rao, while briefing the media about the arrests on Thursday, June 27.
He said Aishwarya and Tirumal had discussed the Meghalaya case while plotting the murder. “They thought some mistakes were made in the Meghalaya case, and wanted to execute their plan in such a way that police cannot detect it,” the SP said.
Aishwarya’s engagement to Tejeshwar, who was a private land surveyor and dancer, had been arranged in December 2024. The wedding was initially scheduled for February, but days before the date, Aishwarya left her home in Kurnool and went missing for a week. Tejeshwar’s family called off the wedding and began looking for other matches.
According to Tejeshwar’s sister, when Aishwarya returned, she reached out to Tejeshwar and persuaded him to go ahead with the wedding. “She said she left home because her mother was harassing her over financial problems. She convinced him to marry her, saying she liked him,” the sister said.
Tejeshwar’s brother, who reported him missing on June 17, exactly a month after the wedding took place on May 18, said that his family was opposed to the wedding. But Aishwarya’s relatives allegedly insisted, and eventually convinced Tejeshwar to proceed.
According to police, Aishwarya and Tirumal had begun planning Tejeshwar’s murder soon after the engagement. Tirumal hired Nagesh, who had approached him for a loan, promising him loan sanctions in exchange for the murder.
Nagesh, along with two others, Parasuramudu and Raju, befriended Tejeshwar and even installed a GPS tracker on his bike to track his movements, the SP said. They also allegedly roped in a fourth man, Mohan, a mason, to track and report Tejeshwar’s movements.
“Many times, Aishwarya had asked her husband Tejeshwar to drop her on the bike from Gadwal to Kurnool, so the hired killers could try and attack him. They [Tirumal and Aishwarya] had plans to go to Ladakh or Andaman after Tejeshwar was killed,” the SP said.
On the fatal day of June 17, the three hired killers, who had gained Tejeshwar’s trust, allegedly lured him into a vehicle on the pretext of inspecting a field. He did not return.
“We traced Tejeshwar’s bike after he went missing. CCTV footage from the area showed three persons taking him away in a vehicle. They seemed familiar with him, they did not seem like strangers,” the SP said.
Police began investigations across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. On June 22, a body found in a canal in Kurnool was identified as Tejeshwar’s.
Further investigation led police to uncover what they described as a premeditated murder conspiracy involving Aishwarya and Tirumal.
“The hired killers took Tejeshwar in a Swift Dzire. He was next to the driver’s seat. Between Erravalli and Gadwal, Parasuramudu and Raju, who were sitting in the back seat, attacked with him a sickle hidden under the driver’s seat,” the SP said.
Allegedly based on Tirumal’s guidance, they took a route avoiding highways to Panchalingala in Kurnool. “Since there was blood on their clothes, Tirumal also brought them fresh clothes,” the SP said, adding that it was Tirumal who suggested they dump Tejeshwar’s body in a canal.
Police have arrested eight people including Aishwarya, Tirumal, the hired killers Nagesh, Parasuramudu, and Raju, Mohan who helped the killers track Tejeshwar. Aishwarya’s mother Sujatha, and Tirumal’s father, Tirupatayya, a retired head constable of the Andhra Pradesh police, were also held for allegedly shielding Aishwarya and Tirumal from the police after learning of the murder.
Police said they have seized the GPS tracker on Tejeshwar’s bike and the murder weapons.
According to the SP, Tirumal, who worked as a manager at a financial services company called Can Fin Homes in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, was also previously involved in a relationship with Aishwarya’s mother, Sujatha. Though he has been married since 2019, he continued his relationship with Aishwarya and had, at one point, even allegedly considered murdering his wife before deciding against it.