It appears that the murder of a Dalit youth at a bar and restaurant owned by the follower of a Telugu Desam MLA at Penamaluru has come in handy for secondary education minister Kolusu Parthasarathi to settle scores with the TDP leaders.
According to sources, Parthasarathi had urged home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy to direct the city police to register a case against the bar owner and staff holding them responsible for the murder of Garikapati Kumar (27) of Poranki village.
Kumar was allegedly attacked by the bar employees on Sunday when he refused to pay the bill after consuming liquor. His relatives and some locals staged a dharna demanding the arrest of the bar staff for murdering Kumar. But Garikapati Sriramulu lodged a complaint with the police on Monday stating that his son died after he fell down from the steps at the bar.
Sriramulu is said to have distorted the fact after receiving Rs 10 lakh from the bar management. Initially, the Penamaluru police registered a case of suspicious death.
Later, the police altered the case and arrested six persons, including the bar owner Boya Anand Prasad, in connection with the murder of Kumar.
The arrested were remanded in judicial custody till September 5 by the First Metropolitan Magistrate on Wednesday.
Speaking to Express, city police commissioner N Madhusudhan Reddy made it clear that they had altered the case after receiving the postmortem report which stated that Kumar died of multiple injuries, and it was in no way connected with politics.
It may be mentioned here that the TDP leaders launched an attack on Parthasarathi demanding his resignation after his conviction in a FERA violation case. They also flayed the minister for not consoling the families of six boys who drowned in the Krishna river though they are people of his Penamaluru Assembly constituency.