HYDERABAD: Nagarkurnool police on Tuesday arrested a 47-year-old man believed to be the mastermind behind 11 murders committed over the past three years across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
According to the police, the accused, identified as Ramati Satyanarayana, lured his victims by claiming that he would help them unearth buried treasure.
Satyanarayana’s victims hailed from Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy, Kollapur and Kalwakurthy districts in Telangana, Balaganoor (Karnataka) and Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh), the police said, adding that he has been evading arrest since 2020. After gaining the confidence of his potential targets, he would persuade them to come to a secluded location, where he poured acid on their mouths saying that it was theertham (holy water).
“The theertham was contaminated with a poison he had concocted with herbs. We found traces of the poison and seized five bottles containing the substance,” P Mahender, Sub-Inspector (SI) of Nagarkurnool police station, told TNIE.
When 32-year-old Govula Venkatesh, one of the victims, did not return home even five days after his trip on November 3 to meet Satyanarayana in Nagarkurnool, his wife along with two family members went to meet the accused. However, Satyanarayana did not answer their questions properly and seemed to be extremely evasive. So on November 26, weeks after the incident, Venkatesh’s wife filed a missing person complaint at the Nagarkurnool police station.
Satyanarayana was already a suspect in the 2022 murder case of Vasrala Lingaswamy under the Nagarkurnool police station limits. “When we received a complaint against Satyanarayana, we were confident that if we thoroughly investigated this case, we would be able to find a link,” the SI said.
Upon probe, the police found that Venkatesh along with his friend from Hyderabad had heard of Satyanarayana’s ability to help find hidden treasures. They had approached the accused, who had reportedly agreed to help them in exchange for money. The accused then asked Venkatesh to put the herbs in locations where he believed the treasures were.
He continued some more ritualistic activities before telling Venkatesh that three pregnant women should be killed to find the treasure trove. When he backed down, the accused convinced him there was another procedure and lured him to the outskirts of Jalalpur village. There, Satyanarayana killed Venkatesh under the pretence of offering him theertham, the police added.
Modus operandi
The police investigation revealed that Satyanarayana has been carrying out his crimes in a similar pattern, as was evident in 10 other cases since 2020. His modus operandi involves luring people under the pretext of hidden treasure, taking money, or transferring their registered plots under his name. Subsequently, he feigns conducting a ritual with herbs, leads them to secluded locations, poisons them, and then proceeds to fatally assault them by hurling large boulders, the police said.“Of the 11 victims, Satyanarayana had murdered four women. The modus operandi was the same in these instances too. There has been no suspicion of sexual harassment,” SI Mahender said.
How did the police reach the accused?
“During the investigation, Venkatesh’s friend informed us that they both had approached the accused to find a hidden treasure. But the accused denied it. So we found technical evidence in the form of call recordings and arrested him,” he said.“During further investigation by the Nagarkurnool CI, the sensational killings of (10) more persons in the confession of the accused came out,” said LS Chowhan, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mahbubnagar.