7 accused in honour killing case arrested
Maruthi Rao, contract killer among those detained
Four days after the brutal murder of 24year-old Dalit youth P. Pranay Kumar, Nalgonda Police arrested seven men, including T Maruthi Rao as well as the contract killer named Subhash Sharma from various locations on Monday.
According to superintendent of police, Nalgonda, A.V. Ranganath, Maruthi Rao wanted to eliminate his daughter’s husband and hired contract killers from among his peers in town. He looked for contract killers and finally made a pact with Subhash Kumar alias Sharma, 32. Sharma hacked Pranay to death at a private hospital in front of his wife and mother on Saturday at 1:30 pm.
Sharma, who hails from Bihar was taken into custody at Jagatsingpur in Bihar and will be shifted on a transit warrant. He might reach Nalgonda by Tuesday night, according to police.
According to police, T. Maruthi Rao, with the help of Abdul Kareem, approached Asgar Ali and Mohameed Bari to kill Pranay, who had married his daughter against his wishes. Maruthi was unable to digest the fact that Pranay belonged to the Dalit community and developed a grudge against him.
Mr Ranganath, speaking to this newspaper said, “Bari was accused in the murder of Hiren Pandya, the then Home Minister of Gujarat. The Andhra Pradesh police picked him up for a pending warrant against him and lodged him in Rajahmundry Central Jail where he got acquainted with Subhash Sharma.”
The prime accused hatched the murder plot about three months ago, along with the other accused, who kept an eye on Pranay’s movements for the “right time” to execute their plan.
In the first week of July, Maruthi with the help of Miryalaguda town Congress party president, Abdul Kareem, learnt about Md Bari and Md Asgar Ali, who were allegedly trained by ISI.
Maruthi invited the other accused for a meeting. Subsequently, Kareem, Maruthi and Asgar Ali held a meeting in Maruthi Rao’s car at Auto Nagar, Miryalaguda.
Initially, they demanded `2 crore. They later settled for `1 crore. On July 10, Maruthi Rao and Kareem met Bari and Asgar near Ramoji Film City and handed over `16 lakh. On August 9, Bari and Subhash went for a recce. On August 14, Subhash came to know that Amrutha had gone to a beauty parlour along with Pranay and his brother Ajay. “They wanted to kill Pranay then but were confused between the brothers and dropped their plan.”
On August 17, Pranay and Amrutha Varshini’s wedding reception was held. On August 22, Subhash went to Pranay’s house and asked for a car on rent. In the first week of September, Maruthi pressurised Asgar and Subhash to kill Pranay but failed again.
On September 14, with credible information of the young couple visiting the hospital, Subhash murdered Pranay.