Hyderabad: Police solved the suspicious death of a 27-year-old housewife who was found dead at home on Monday, and arrested her husband for killing her for constantly ridiculing her for his inability to satisfy her sexual desires.

Accused Ponnala Laxman(47), a cashier at Corporation Bank's Madannapet branch, married Madhavi in 2005 and the couple had two children. He was a divorcee before marrying Madhavi who was nearly 20 years younger than him.

On Monday night, Madhavi's brother Anand Babu complained to the Hayathnagar police saying his sister was found dead at her house in suspicious circumstances.

He told police: "Laxman called me saying that Madhavi's health had suddenly deteriorated. I rushed to their house and found my sister lying dead in the bed."

Anand expressed doubts about the cause of his sister's sudden death. During a preliminary probe, police noticed scratch marks on the face of the victim.

After enquiring neighbours and friends of the couple, the police got clues that Laxman had been harassing his wife, suspecting that she was having an affair. They picked up Laxman for questioning on Friday morning from his house in Kuntlur, Abdullapurment.

"During interrogation, Laxman confessed to having smothered his wife," Hayathnagar inspector J. Narender Goud said. There was a 20-year age gap between Laxman and Madhavi, and the wife used to constantly remind him of his age, and she was ridiculing him for not being able to satisfy her sexually," the accused is reported to have told the police.

On Monday, Laxman sent both his children to school and had liquor with his wife at home. In a drunken state, he picked up an argument with Madhavi and in a fit of rage began to physically assaulting her. "Laxman punched her and also hit her with household utensils. Madhavi fainted and Laxman smothered her to death," the inspector said.

After killing his wife, Laxman went to his children's school and brought them home. He told the school staff that Madhavi suffered a stroke and that he had admitted her at a local hospital. After reaching his home with the children, he put them to bed and once they woke up in the evening, he told them that their mother died in her sleep. He also called her parents and brother to inform them about a sudden deterioration in her health. He could manage to escape with this story only for a while, but the police soon brought out the truth.

Based on the confession, police seized a steel spatula used by Laxman to attack his wife and also seized an empty whiskey bottle from his house. Police altered the sections of the case which was initially under sec 174 of CrPC (suspicious death) to sections 302 (murder) and 203 (giving false information about an offence committed) of the IPC. The accused was produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.