Vizag: Body of missing woman found after 1 year; police arrest couple for murder

Annavaram: Police have arrested a couple for the mysterious disappearance and murder of a 21-year-old woman in the ASR district. The young man went missing on September 10, 2021. Annavaram police have recovered the highly-decomposed body. After the investigation, police arrested a couple.

The arrested couple has been identified as Korabu Lakshmi (20), a native of Chittamputtu, and her boyfriend Vandalam Gopal (21), a native of Sampangiputtu. The victim was identified as Chedala Kanthamma, a native of Sampangiputtu.

Sub-Inspector of Annavaram police station P Sai Kumar said Kanthamma's marriage was fixed with Gopal, who was in love with another woman Lakshmi. Lakshmi came to know about the engagement and threatened Gopal that she would end her life if he married Kanthamma.

Later, Gopal and Lakshmi decided to eliminate Kanthamma to continue their love affair. They hatched a plan to end Kanthamma on Ganesh festival. On September 10, 2021, Lakshmi invited Kanthamma to attend Ganesh festival. Later, Lakshmi and Gopal strangled Kanthamma and buried the body near Lakshmi's house.

Suspecting that they would get caught, they fled from the village to East Godavari district where they worked in an aqua food processing plant. Based on some clues, police visited East Godavari and nabbed the duo. The police exhumed the highly decomposed body and sent it for autopsy.