3 min readHyderabadUpdated: Jun 10, 2026 06:34 AM IST
It was a foul smell that first drew attention to the house in Hyderabad’s Moula Ali locality. When neighbours entered the premises on August 18, 2019, they found the dismembered remains of retired Railways employee Maruthi Suthar (70) stored in plastic buckets — a discovery that would unravel a murder conspiracy involving his wife, son and daughter.
Seven years later, a Telangana court on Monday sentenced Maruthi’s son, Kishan Rahul Suthar (47) and daughter, Prapulla (36), to death, while awarding life imprisonment to their mother, Ganga Bai (65), for her role in the crime.
The Principal District and Sessions Court in Medchal-Malkajgiri district found the three guilty of conspiring to murder Maruthi and attempting to conceal the crime by dismembering his body and storing the remains in six newly purchased buckets.
The prosecution said the murder was the culmination of simmering tensions within the family, centred on Maruthi’s pension and financial disputes.
According to investigators, Kishan, who was unemployed, frequently quarrelled with his father over money. Maruthi had purportedly become reluctant to hand over his pension after repeated demands from his son. His daughter, too, allegedly harboured resentment over what she viewed as her father’s unwillingness to share his pension income with the family.
The prosecution argued that the siblings blamed his alleged alcoholism and abusive behaviour when intoxicated for the strained relationship and eventually drew their mother into a plan to kill him.
Police said the family used poison extracted from the datura plant and mixed it into Maruthi’s food in small quantities over several days until he died. The investigation also uncovered evidence that the accused had watched online videos on painless methods of killing before carrying out the crime.
Story continues below this ad
After Maruthi’s death, the family allegedly faced a new problem: disposing of the body without attracting attention in a densely populated neighbourhood.
Investigators said they purchased six plastic buckets, dismembered the body and stored the remains inside them. The plan began to unravel when neighbours noticed a strong odour coming from the house and confronted the family.
Despite objections from Kishan and Prapulla, some residents entered the house and discovered the buckets containing the body parts, leading to the police investigation that exposed the alleged conspiracy.
Pronouncing the sentence, Principal District and Sessions Judge V Bala Bhaskar Rao held that the case fell within the “rarest of rare” category, warranting capital punishment.
Story continues below this ad
While the brother and sister were sentenced to death, their mother, Ganga Bai, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The three had been convicted on May 20. Apart from the sentences for murder, the court also imposed additional prison terms for criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.