Hyderabad: A 68-year-old French woman who went missing three days ago was found murdered in bushes at Himayatsagar on Saturday. Later in the day, police arrested three persons, including the victim’s adopted daughter, in the murder case.
On Thursday, Cyberabad police received a complaint that Marie Christine, 68, a founder of Marica School at Dargah Khalij Khan in Gandipet, went missing on Wednesday night.
During the examination of suspects based on the information given by her family members, police picked up the victim’s 24-year-old adopted daughter, Roma.
On questioning her, police found that Marie was already murdered and her body was dumped in bushes at Himayatsagar. Later, police announced the arrest of Vikram Sriramulu and Rahul Gowtham along with Roma.
DCP (Shamshabad) N Prakash Reddy said Marie was looking for an alliance for Roma and she even uploaded her details on a matrimonial portal. Two months ago, they came across Vikram’s profile on the portal. Without the knowledge of the victim, Roma started to stay with Vikram at Kondapur, police said.
Marie did not like Vikram. When she came to know that Roma was staying with him and wanted to marry him, the victim rejected the proposal. “Roma decided to eliminate Marie and she conspired with Vikram and his friend Rahul. On the day of the murder, Roma visited the residence of Marie. Later, the victim dropped Roma at their school in Tolichowki in their car and returned to her house at Khalij Khan. By this time, the other two accused were already waiting for the victim as per plan,’’ Prakash Reddy said. Vikram and Rahul scaled the wall and got into the house and strangulated Marie to death. They stuffed the body in her car, drove it up to Himayatsagar and dumped it in a bush. They returned to her house and parked the car, police said. The accused also stole her phone and a laptop and transferred Rs 2 lakh from the victim’s account to Roma’s account.
The French woman has been living in Hyderabad for the last three decades and set up a few schools in city. She also gave shelter to several orphans. Marie had two biological daughters — Marie Solange, who resides in Hyderabad, and Rebecca, who stays in Puducherry. When Roma was a month old, Marie had adopted her as she was an orphan. Her biological daughters suspected Roma’s role in the murder as she has been staying away from their mother following a dispute.