Ayyagari Venkata Sura Sai Krishna, priest of the Maisamma temple who was arrested on Friday, was produced before a magistrate on Saturday morning.
He was remanded to judicial custody and was subsequently shifted to Cherlapally Jail.
The 37-year-old accused, who was married and father of two children, was having an extramarital affair with Apsara, a resident of Saroornagar and a regular devotee of the temple.
Police found that he murdered the woman as she was pressuring him to marry her as she had become pregnant with his child.
The shocking incident came to light on Friday, nearly a week after the priest killed the woman in cold blood and dumped her body in a manhole.
Police found that the priest killed the woman in Sultanpalli and dumped the body in a manhole in Saroornagar area.
According to police, he took Apsara to Sultanpalli in Shamshabad mandal on the city outskirts in a car on June 3.
The priest killed her by smashing her head with a boulder and then bundled the body in a bag, kept it in the car and brought it back to Saroornagar, where he dumped it in a manhole behind the temple.
The accused later lodged a complaint with Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) police station that his relative Apsara was missing since June 3 after he had dropped her at Shamshabad.
He told police that Apsara, who was supposed to leave for Bhadrachalam with her friends, stopped taking calls from June 4 and her phone was later switched off. Police registered a case and took up investigation. The investigating officers found that the details given by the complainant were not matching with the technical evidence like call data.
Police checked the CCTV footage and mobile signals of Sai Krishna. They took him into custody and during the question he confessed to the crime.
The body was retrieved from the manhole and sent for autopsy.
