Woman kills husband, then passes off lover as husband

A 27-year-old married woman and her paramour have been arrested today for killing the woman's husband and then enacting an elaborate drama to hide the murder, police said.
Police said that the woman's paramour, after the murder, actually set himself on fire to pose as the dead husband.
Explaining the sequence of events, a senior police official said, " The woman was married to one Sudhakar Reddy and has two children from the marriage. She was in a relationship with one Rajesh. The two got together and killed Reddy on November 27 and disposed his body in a forested part of Mahabubnagar district." The murder happened in Nagarkurnool, police said.

The accused, Rajesh, police said, then poured kerosene on himself suffering burn injuries to his face and upper body.
"She lodged a complaint with police stating that a group of four persons attacked her "husband" at their house and poured petrol on his face and other parts of the body and set him on fire. She then shifted him to a hospital in Hyderabad as her husband Reddy," Nagarkurnool Sub-Division Deputy Superintendent of Police Laxmi Narayana said.

However, the officer said, relatives of Reddy told hospital authorities that the man undergoing treatment as Sudhakar Reddy was somebody else.
Investigations into the suspicion of the relatives revealed the murder and the subsequent cover-up by the two, said police.

"The woman said that she along with Rajesh had hit Sudhakar Reddy with a sharp edged object on his head and then strangled him to death. They later dumped his body in a forest after setting it on fire," the officer said.
The DSP said that the woman has confessed that she got Rajesh admitted in the hospital by passing him as off her husband as the two later planned to live together.
He said that police recovered Reddy's body in a highly decomposed state from the forest in Mahabubnagar.
Both have been booked on charges of murder, he said, adding that Rajesh has not been arrested yet as he is undergoing treatment for his burn injuries.