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Updated: May 01, 2019 16:46 IST

A police constable has been arrested for allegedly killing a woman colleague and setting afire her body on the outskirts of Venkatapur village of Sadasivapet block in Telangana’s Sangareddy district.

According to the police, head constable Nalla Mandarika (28) was posted at the Rama Chandra Puram police station in Cyberabad. She had been missing since April 29 and her mobile phone had remained switched off since then. When she did not return home till midnight on April 29, her father lodged a complaint with the police on Tuesday morning.

Mandarika’s father suspected the involvement of another constable - Jella Prakash (30) - who works at the Hathnoora police station in Sangareddy, behind Nalla Mandarika going missing, as she allegedly had an affair with him. The police took Prakash into custody and on questioning, he admitted to having killed Mandarika by strangulating her and later setting her body afire after dousing it with petrol.

On Tuesday night, Prakash took the police to the outskirts of Venkatapur village, where he had killed her. The police recovered the charred remains of the woman constable from the site.

Sangareddy Superintendent of Police S Chandrashekar Reddy, who visited the crime spot, told reporters that Mandarika had been in love with Prakash ever since they had worked as colleagues at the Sangareddy police station two years ago. The affair continued even after they were transferred to different police stations.

However, she had recently come to know that Prakash was already married and she had begun pressurising him to marry her, too. As a result, Prakash decided to get rid of Mandarika and hatched a plan to eliminate her. “He brought her to Venkatapur village by car, strangled her to death and set her afire,” the SP said.

The Sangareddy police have lodged a murder case against Prakash and are investigating.