KAKINADA: Ramachandrapuram Police on Friday arrested TDP town president Nandula Raju for his alleged involvement in the murder of his daughter Nandula Jaya Deepika.
The 20-year-old was found lying in a pool of blood in the early hours of October 17 at her house in Thota Vari Street of Ramachandrapuram town. Nandula Raju lodged a police complaint expressing suspicion that his son Nandula Jaya Prakash may have murdered Deepika as he was against the girl’s relationship with K Manikanta, a distant relative.
During investigation, police found that Nandula Raju had tried to mislead the police by suggesting his son’s hand in the murder. “Based on the complaint, we first investigated the whereabouts of the victim’s brother and found that he was in the bar and restaurant owned by the family at the time of the incident. We suspected Raju’s involvement in the killing and investigated the angle. On being questioned, he confessed to having murdered his daughter for not listening to him and being adamant about marrying Manikanta,” Ramachandrapuram DSP JV Santosh told mediapersons.
Deepika, who was pursuing her final year engineering and simultaneously working at a generic medicine shop owned by her family in the area hospital, was in love with K Manikanta who was working as the assistant of a lineman.Nandula Raju was against the relationship and wanted Deepika to marry her cousin, which she refused.
On the intervening night of October 16 and 17, the father and daughter had a heated argument over the issue and when Deepika refused to marry the person of her father’s choice, he, in a fit of rage, smashed her head with a wooden bench. He left the house and spun a story that he had found her lying in a pool of blood with head injuries. She was shifted to the area hospital where she was declared brought dead.