Three arrests have been made by the Ramagundam police in relation to the brutal murder of the advocate couple who were hacked to death in broad daylight on Wednesday, 17 February afternoon.
The three accused have been identified as TRS local leader Kunta Srinivas, Shivandula Chiranjeevi, and Akkapaka Kumar, all of whom were produced before a magistrate on Thursday, 18 February evening. Apart from these, another person by the name, Bittu Srinivas too has been arrested for providing the car, which was used by the other accused.
The ruling TRS, earlier in the day, suspended the party’s Mandal president in Manthani Kunta Srinivas who was the prime suspect in the murder.
After the video clips of the murder surfaced, a police task force was set up to verify the tip off received, that the accused were in the Wankidi-Chandrapur area on the Telangana-Maharashtra border.
According to the police press release, the task force police spotted the accused while they were on the road and arrested them. Investigating officer ACP Godavarikhani started interrogating the accused.
North Zone IG Nagi Reddy, while addressing a PC on Thursday, 18 February evening, told the media that the on-going legal battles between Kunta Srinivas and Vamana Rao were the reasons behind the murder and ruled out any political reasons for the murder.
He further added that there were three instant reasons for the murder: Kunta Srinivas was building a house against which Vamana Rao had raised objections. A temple of the local deity that Kunta was building too was stopped by Rao on the allegations that it was being built illegally. In addition, there was a dispute between the two of them over a committee for a local Rama Temple.
Background
On the day of the murder, Vamana Rao was in Manthini to attend to a case regarding the Rama Temple committee dispute.
From there he visited his brother Indrashekhar and took his signature to file a writ petition on the same issue in the Telangana HC. He was returning to Hyderabad with his wife when the accused, who had been keeping track of his movements and were waiting near a patch of the road that was under construction, attacked them.
After the murder, the three accused changed their clothes, threw the murder weapons in the nearby barrage, and headed to Maharashtra, said the police note.
The prime accused Kunta has several cases registered against him including a case of extortion.
On Wednesday, 17 February, visuals of an advocate couple from Telangana being waylaid and hacked to death by unidentified assailants on a road in broad daylight surfaced. The incident took place near Kalvacherla under Ramagiri police station limits in Peddapalli district.
The attack took place at around 3 pm. While Nagamani succumbed to her injuries instantaneously, Vaman Rao died while being taken to the hospital.
Many videos of the incident that have surfaced show the sheer impunity with which the two attackers waylaid the couple and hacked them many times on the busy road, even as vehicles piled up on either side.
(This story was first published on The News Minute and has been republished here with permission.)
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