When 36-year-old stockbroker Rupesh Kumar Mohnani was burning the body parts of his Congolese wife Cynthia Vechel on Monday evening, their six-year-old daughter Sania was sitting in the car, unaware o
When 36-year-old stockbroker Rupesh Kumar Mohnani was burning the body parts of his Congolese wife Cynthia Vechel on Monday evening, their six-year-old daughter Sania was sitting in the car, unaware of what had transpired.
Mohnani was apprehended by locals who saw bloodstains on his car while he was returning after burning the suitcase containing his wife’s body parts.
He had chopped Cynthia’s body into nine pieces using a knife, hammer and an axe after strangulating her to death. He had stuffed the body parts into a polythene bag and kept it in a travel bag before taking it to Madanapalli village to burn it, said Shamshabad police sources.
During interrogation, Mohnani told police that he was upset with his wife’s illicit affair with a Congo national, Mr Kinuani Kamitani, who lives in France. He claimed that she wanted to marry her lover and wanted to take their daughter with her. Police officials said that the couple had also been quarrelling over financial issues for the last few months.
“We are probing the angles of illicit affair and financial dispute. Rupesh had recently lost a huge amount in her business,” said Mr Sunpreet Singh, DCP, Shamshabad.
According to the police, on Monday at around 3 am, Mohnani and Cynthia quarrelled over her affair in their Hitec City apartment. In a fit of rage, he strangulated her to death. Sania was sleeping when the murder took place.
In the morning, when Sania asked, Mohnani told her that her mother had gone out for some work. He then dropped Sania at the apartment gate for her school bus and came back to the apartment.
“The body was hidden in one of the bathrooms. After the kid went to school, Rupesh chopped it up and packed it,” said Shamshabad ACP Anuradha.
Later, he picked up his daughter and took her with him to dispose the body. “He dropped the bag at an isolated place in Madanapalli village and tried to burn it with petrol. While he was driving back, the villagers saw him and alerted us,” said the DCP.
Police said that Cynthia had applied for an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI card). The Embassy of Congo has been informed of the murder, officials said.
Following interrogation, Mohnani confessed to the murder. Police found that Mohnani had been driving a hired car for the last few days, and he went to dispose the body in the same vehicle. He had also purchased five litres of petrol from Madhapur.
The police has sent the body parts for post-mortem and has summoned Cynthia’s relatives, who live in Hyderabad.
A case for murder under IPC Section 302 with an additional charge for concealing evidence has been filed against Mohnani.
