After a decade-long trial, a Special SC/ST Court sentenced Jyotirmayi, now 34, to life imprisonment for the murder of her husband Ramesh and six-year-old daughter Sowmya in 2015. Judge B. Appala Swamy also sentenced two accomplices, Chokka Naresh and Poda Raju, to seven years in prison.
Her surviving children, Pranathi and Rushi, will receive ₹14 lakh in government compensation, having lost both their father and now their mother to prison.
According to Superintendent of Police Vakul Jindal and Two Town Circle Inspector T. Srinivasa Rao, Jyotirmayi killed her husband on July 26, 2015, in Anandapuram mandal of Visakhapatnam district after he discovered her affair with Ragati Ramu. Ramesh was beaten with a broken wooden door, and his body was burned near Bheemunipatnam beach with the help of Naresh and Raju.
Their daughter Sowmya, who witnessed the crime, was later thrown alive into a well at Phoolbagh in Vizianagaram. Though her body was recovered, identification was delayed as no missing-person complaint had been filed. To mislead investigators, Jyotirmayi lodged a false complaint alleging that Ramesh had killed Sowmya and fled. The investigation gained momentum after the couple’s other children confided in their grandparents, who alerted the police.
Despite difficulties in collecting forensic proof, investigators recovered Ramesh’s skeletal remains, with DNA tests confirming the link to both father and daughter.
Public prosecutor V. Raghuram presented the evidence, leading to Jyotirmayi’s conviction. The main conspirator, Ragati Ramu, had died in a road accident a few years earlier.
Commending the police team, SP Vakul Jindal praised the decade-long efforts of Inspector Srinivasa Rao, former Circle Inspectors Ambedkar, Durga Prasad, N.H. Vijaya Anand, K. Rama Rao, ASI P. Malleswara Rao, and court constable T. Lakshmi.
