An English teacher asked her husband for a divorce and for custody of their son before he allegedly murdered her and locked her body in a wheelie bin.

Chaithanya ‘Swetha’ Madhagani, 35, was living in Point Cook, in Melbourne‘s south-west, with her husband Ashok Raj Varikuppala, 38, and their four-year-old, Ayra – until March 8 when she was allegedly smothered and dumped in a green bin.

By the time her remains were uncovered about 80km away in Buckley, Mr Varikuppala had already fled to India with their son and allegedly told her parents that he was responsible for her death.

According to the Herald Sun, he said: ‘I am sorry for what I did, Chaithanya is no more, I killed her.’ 

Mr Varikuppala offered her parents four acres of land to take care of Ayra and to send him to school. He has not returned to Australia. 

Now, a close relative of Ms Madhagani’s has revealed a significant source of tension in their 12-year marriage was that he wanted to move back to India and she wanted to stay in Australia.

‘She wanted divorce … but she wanted to have his son with her, which Ashok wasn’t accepting,’ they said.

‘He did not believe that she could take care of the kid as there was no permanent job also.’ 

On the two occasions the young family visited India since moving to Melbourne, the relative said they saw them fighting and urged Mr Varikuppala to leave his wife.

They said the marriage was not arranged and the couple were together for 17 years, but Mr Varikuppala’s family never fully accepted Ms Madhagani.

‘Whatever happened is very sad,’ he said. 

‘A life is lost. She wasn’t good with our family but [he] loved her always.’

Both families are devastated and concerned for the child’s welfare, now that he has to live without his parents. 

In March, more than 100 mourners gathered at the Mallapur crematorium in Hyderabad to pay their respects to Ms Madhagani.

Her father Balshetty Madhagani told the crowd: ‘It is not the time to die – you were so young, what will we do without you?’

Another relative, Anna Swamy, said they were desperate for police to charge Ms Madhagani husband.

‘We want justice for our daughter,’ he said.

The couple had moved to Australia for a better life.

Ms Madhagani started her own business selling saris – a dream she had for six years.

She became an Australian citizen in 2019 and said on social media at the time: ‘Grateful for everything I have, everything I know, everything I am.’

In a GoFundMe campaign, she was remembered as an ‘amazing woman and even a better mum’.

She has a heart of gold and touched everyone’s hearts she met. There was never a dull moment in her presence.’

In March, Victoria Police said Varikuppala was a person of interest in their investigation of Ms Madhagani’s death and that he was still overseas despite his claim he would be returning to Australia. 

Varikuppala allegedly dropped his son off with Ms Madhagani’s parents at their house in the south central Indian city of Hyderabad before vanishing.

His parents have since visited the same property to ‘apologise’ to Ms Madhagani’s mother and father for what their son allegedly did, offer them and Ayra four acres of land as well as to take care and school the boy.

‘They wanted to take care of their grandson,’ Ms Madhagani’s maternal grandfather K Gopal said.

‘They offered four acres of land for him.

‘They expressed regret about the incident and apologised for whatever happened.

‘They remember Swetha as happy daughter-in-law.’

Mr Gopal said Mr Varikuppala’s parents had already enrolled Arya in a nearby school.

He also said they had didn’t know where Mr Varikuppala was but ‘are being told he is absconding’.