Date:02/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/02/stories/2008120259730500.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Man found murdered in Suraram

Staff Reporter

Killers strangle the victim to death using bed linen
Victim’s legs were tied with a torn bedsheet

HYDERABAD: A 40-year-old unidentified man, who rented a single room in a house three days ago along with three more persons claiming them as his family members at Bhagat Singh Nagar in Suraram, was found murdered on Monday.

The house owner Devasoth Shankar Naik felt something was fishy when foul smell began to emanate from the rented room in the morning. He pushed open the windows and found the victim lying on a mat wrapped in a mattress. He called in the police who broke open the locked room and found the decomposed body inside.

According to Naik, the victim, along with a woman aged about 35 years, a 12-year-old boy and a youth in his late 20s, claiming them as his wife, son and brother respectively, approached him on Friday. He maintained that he was from Bihar and worked with Jayaraj Company located in Jeedimetla. He rented the room for a monthly sum of Rs. 700 and paid one month rent in advance.

The family of four occupied the room within hours walking in with three bags. They stayed in the room for that night. The next morning, they went out and returned by evening. “On Saturday morning, I found the room locked and thought they must have gone out on some work but they never returned,” Naik told police. Dindigal police station Inspector Y. Ramachandrudu told reporters that he suspected that the man and woman, who accompanied the victim, could have murdered him. The killers strangled him to death using a bed linen. Bleeding injury on throat suggests that his throat was slit with a knife. The victim’s legs were tied with a torn bedsheet.

A big knife, without any blood stains, kept in a bag was recovered from the room. Except some clothes of the family members in two bags, nothing was found in the room.