Main accused in T’gana hate crime kills self: Police

Maruthi Rao (55), the prime accused for the murder of his 24-year old Dalit Christian son-in-law Perumalla Pranay at Miryalaguda town in Nalgonda district in 2018, committed suicide at a guest house in Hyderabad on Sunday morning, the police said.

Saifabad police inspector Ch Saidi Reddy said that Rao’s body was found under suspicious circumstances at Arya Vysya Bhavan, a guest house at Khairatabad, at around 7:30 am.

The police sent Rao’s body to Osmania General Hospital for post-mortem examination. “The autopsy revealed that he had consumed poison. We have handed over the body to his family members – his wife Girija and brother Sravan – in the afternoon,” Reddy said.

He said Rao left behind a suicide note that sought his wife’s pardon for taking the extreme step and also appealed to his daughter Amrutha Varshini to go back to her mother. “Girija, please pardon me. Amrutha, please return to your mother,” read the brief suicide note.

According to preliminary inquiries by the police, Rao had checked into the guest house late on Saturday. He was staying in room number 306, while his driver slept in the car within the premises of the guest house.

“On Sunday morning, Rao’s wife tried calling him from Miryalaguda, but he didn’t take the call. Then she called the driver, who went to his room and knocked at the door,” an official of Saifabad police station said.

“When Rao didn’t respond, he alerted the guest house staff, who called the police. The police broke open the door to find Rao lying dead on his bed,” the official added.

Rao, a prominent realtor from Miryalaguda, had been on bail since April 2019 in connection with the killing of Pranay for