Hyderabad: A Hyderabad resident was convicted with life imprisonment and fined Rs 25,000 by a Rajendranagar court on Monday, August 17, for murdering his wife, dismembering her body, and attempting to destroy the evidence in a fire.
On July 4, 2016, Rupesh Kumar Mohanani, aged 45 years, was found near his Ford SUV with his minor daughter while his wife’s dismembered body was burning some distance away in the Madanapally village. Upon noticing smoke rising from the area, residents immediately alerted the local police. During the initial questioning, Mohanani disclosed that the remains belonged to his wife, Cynthia Vechel, a Congolese national whom he had married in 2008.
According to the Shamshabad police’s investigation, tensions had been brewing between the couple after they relocated to Hyderabad with their daughter. Cynthia had expressed her growing desire to leave India with her daughter, and Mohanani also found issues with her continued contact with a former boyfriend residing in France.
On the night of July 3, 2016, a heated confrontation broke out between the spouses at their residence in Gachibowli, when Mohanani strangled Cynthia to death.
Police investigation revealed that Mohanan, in a calculated attempt to erase evidence, dismembered Cynthia’s body using an axe and knives. He packed the remains into bags, loaded them in his vehicle, and drove to a secluded location in Madanapally. He later poured petrol over the body parts and set them on fire.
After inspecting digital footprints, CCTV footage, forensic analysis, and DNA testing to establish the victim’s identity, the police traced the crime back to Mohanani. He was charged under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the then Indian Penal Code.
A decade later, the Shamshabad Police secured his conviction and life sentence.
