Analysis of 60 CCTV footage helped Siberabad police solve woman murder

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Medchal District, N Koti Reddy, the arrested person has been identified as A. Praveen Kumar (36), a private employee and resident of Pochammawada in Utnoor Village of Adilabad.

Reddy said Kumar met the late B. Sharadha in 2013 when he was running a mobile store. They later developed a close relationship, frequently communicating via WhatsApp and meeting in person. Sharadha moved to Hyderabad in 2020 and then started blackmailing him for money, threatening to reveal his dealings with his family and file legal charges to tarnish his reputation.

Fearing these threats, Kumar paid him Rs.2 lakh a year ago. Kumar came up with a plan to recover inappropriate videos from her phone and eliminate her to prevent her from blackmailing him. He left Utnoor to his home in Mallampet on 23 October 2024.

During their meeting, he asked her to return the videos, but the woman demanded more money. In a fit of rage, Kumar strangled her to death. After the incident, Kumar returned to his hometown to hide. To mislead investigators, he staged a robbery by snatching her jewelry, including a chain and earrings.

Around 8 am on Saturday, Dundigal police arrested him from Secunderabad. Reddy explained that investigators were able to arrest Kumar only after painstaking analysis of 60 CCTV footage within a radius of 10 kilometers by the CAT Analysis team.