"We don’t know where Ashok is."
The family of murder victim Chaithanya Madhagani have said goodbye to her in a ceremony in India.
Also known as Swetha, her body was found in a wheelie bin in Victoria, Australia on March 8, 2024.
Chaithanya’s husband Ashok Raj Varikuppala flew to India with their four-year-old son when her body was found.
At the time, he was not considered a suspect but the investigation is ongoing.
On March 24, 2024, over 100 mourners gathered at the Mallapur crematorium in Hyderabad to pay their respects.
Her father Balshetty Madhagani told the congregation:
“It is not the time to die – you were so young, what will we do without you?”
Despite being in India, Ashok did not attend the funeral and neither did his family.
One relative said they were desperate for police to charge Ashok with Chaithanya’s murder.
He said: “We want justice for our daughter.”
It was reported that Ashok handed his son to his in-laws before disappearing.
The relative added: “We don’t know where Ashok is.
“There is no one from Ashok Raj’s family. They should have been here if they really care about their grandson.”
This comes after Ashok’s family had offered Chaithanya Madhagani’s family four acres of land and offered to take care of and school the boy to “apologise” for what their son allegedly did.
The victim’s grandfather K Gopal said:
“They wanted to take care of their grandson. They offered four acres of land for him.
“They expressed regret about the incident and apologised for whatever happened.
“They remember Swetha as a happy daughter-in-law.”
Mr Gopal said Ashok’s parents had already enrolled the child in a nearby school.
He added that they did not know where Ashok was but “are being told he is absconding”.
Meanwhile, in Australia, Chaithanya’s friends gathered to honour her in Point Cook.
Ahead of the vigil, Esha Lakshana said:
“I’m totally shocked. I really can’t believe that she is no more.”
She said Chaithanya was a “genuine person” who was well-known in the local Indian community, many of whom attended the silent vigil on Friday.
Esha said: “She has done so much community service and she has done so much social work.”
Victoria Police said Ashok is a person of interest in their investigation of Chaithanya Madhagani’s death and that he was still overseas despite his claim he would be returning to Australia.
The couple were married for 12 years and seemed happy.
However, close family friend Praveen Kumar Thopucherla said the family’s “internal problems” were well known to friends, and described their marriage as “love and arranged”.
He said: “I believe those went deeper (than) it seems.”
Victoria Police said that due to the seriousness of the matter, there is much we unfortunately cannot comment on and this includes “any liaison with the victim’s family”.
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