HYDERABAD: Five persons, who were allegedly involved in the killing of former Naxalite and founder of Revolutionary Patriotic Tigers Patlolla Goverdhan Reddy, `surrendered' to the police on Thursday.
They were 'picked up' by the city police from Jahangir Peer Dargah near Kottur in neighbouring Mahaboobnagar district. According to sources, four of them had offered prayers at a dargah and had their heads tonsured before their surrender.
The five are identified as Anil alias Rajesh, Narender, Srinivas, Prasanth Reddy and Ahmed. Except Narender, the others got their heads tonsured and all of the five had food at a hotel near the dargah before they were whisked away by the police in three vehicles.
"Information was passed on to us that they would surrender at the dargah and our teams went there and brought them to the city for questioning,'' a senior official said. They were brought to the city after alerting the Kottur police about their detention.
Anil reportedly told investigators that Goverdhan Reddy planned to eliminate him by creating disputes between him and other members of the gang. Anil eliminated Goverdhan Reddy with the help of others. Reddy was killed near Boggulkunta in Sultan Bazar police limits on December 27.
On Wednesday, the suspects sent CDs to some TV channels claiming responsibility for the killing. They claimed that they were the actual killers and not Nayeemuddin whom the police suspected to be the man behind the killing.
Incidentally, when a former top Naxalite Sambasivudu was killed in Nalgonda district recently, police suspected the involvement of Nayeemuddin but some other accused surrendered before the police.
"It is the modus operandi of Nayeemuddin's gang to surrender before the police after executing their plan. Their ploy is, perhaps, to save Nayeemuddin,'' said an investigating officer.