Police in southern India have arrested a 34-year old woman for allegedly murdering her husband in collusion with her boyfriend who she then tried to pass off as her husband by disfiguring his face with acid.

Officials said police had charged Swathi Reddy in Nagarkurnool, Telangana state, with murdering her husband Sudhakar Reddy last Friday and will arrest her physiotherapist lover Rajesh Ajjakolu once he is discharged from hospital after undergoing treatment for facial burns.

According to police, Mrs Reddy had confessed to injecting her husband with an anaesthetic on 27 November and, after he lost consciousness, bludgeoning him to death with an iron rod with Mr Ajjakolu.

The pair then disfigured her husbands face and dumped his body in the nearby Nawabpet forest after partially burning it to prevent identification, investigating officer Inspector Srinivas Rao said.

Mrs Reddy, who is a trained nurse, then smeared Mr Ajjakolu's face with a mixture of acid and petrol, partially disfiguring his face.