Hyderabad, March 26 -- A local court in Hyderabad granted life imprisonment to a temple priest for rape and murder of his paramour in 2023. He also received an additional seven-year term for destroying evidence.

The priest Venkata Sai Surya Krishna, married with two children, had befriended and was engaged in an extramarital relationship with the victim, Apsara. When she started forcing him to marry her, he hatched a plan to kill her.

On June 4, 2023, the couple were on their way to Coimbatore. On the pretext of visiting Goushala at Sultanpally, the priest, also a building contractor, took Apsara to Shamshabad and killed her with a stone to the head.

Later, the temple priest wrapped Apsara's body in a cover, took it to his car and dump...