Hyderabad: A 30-year-old software engineer from Telangana working in the United States has been arrested for the alleged murder of his wife.

On July 1, a local court formally charged him with first-degree murder.

In October last year, Avinash Narne’s 27-year-old wife, Raajitha Sabbineni, was found dead in their Washington home. According to Bellevue Police, they got a call from Narne saying his wife had locked herself inside the bathroom and was not responding. The police broke open the door to find the lifeless body of Raajitha.

The couple were married for just six months.

Investigations began, and Narne’s testimony did not match up. According to his statements, on the day of her death, he left home for some work and returned approximately 40 minutes later.

The Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) videos show no one entered the house during that time.

Police tracked his call records to find he had made multiple calls to an Indian number that belonged to a woman. Narne had called the number four times on the day of Raajitha’s death.

Police said in the court that before his marriage, Narne was in a relationship with the Indian woman, and continued it. She also attended his wedding, police state.

Police also claimed Narne sent the woman a photograph of his wife’s body the day after her death and acknowledged doing so during interrogation.

Furthermore, the court was informed about a series of text messages between the couple leading up to her death. Police said that Raajitha complained about “bitter drinks” made by him.

On the day she died, she allegedly told Narne that a smoothie he had made tasted like “medicine” and “cough syrup.”