Nalgonda honour killing: Seven including father-in-law Maruthi Rao arrested

NALGONDA: The police on Tuesday announced the arrest of seven persons including Maruthi Rao, Mohammed Asghar Ali, Mohammed Abdul Bari -- both of whom were acquitted in the killing of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya. Subhash Sharma, the man who hacked Pranay to death, besides three others and a local Congress leader Abdul Kareem. 

The police, however, ruled out the role of Nakrekal MLA Vemula Veeresham in the conspiracy, as Amruthavarshini had alleged. There were two failed attempts to kill Pranay by the killers hired by his father-in-law T Maruthi Rao previously, before the fatal one. It was on the third such attempt on September 14 that Pranay was mercilessly hacked to death right before the very eyes of his pregnant wife Amrutha Varshini outside the Jyothi Nursing Home. 

Four days after the sensational honour killing in Miryalaguda, chilling details emerged about the entire murder conspiracy today after the district police said that the conspiracy to kill Pranay had started in June itself. Maruthi Rao had shared his plans with his friend Abdul Kareem about killing Pranay for marrying his daughter in June. Kareem then approached Abdul Bari who in turn got in touch with his childhood pal Asghar Ali, both of whom are natives of Nalgonda. Thereafter, all of them met regularly to fine tune their plans. 

In the month of July, all four met in their car at Auto Nagar  in the town, where Asghar and Bari demanded `2.50 crore for killing Pranay. However, after negotiating, they settled for `one crore. Later, Maruthi showed them Pranay’s residence. As per the plan, Asghar used scooter and fake sim cards.

‘’The gang started recce of the area from August 9,’’ said AV Ranganath, Superintendent of Police, Nalgonda. On August 14, when Pranay and Amrutha came to a beauty parlour near their house, they tried first attempt to kill him, but as his brother Ajay accompanied them, they got confused between Pranay and Ajay and dropped the plan. Angered Bari decided to kidnap the couple and kill Pranay, while Amrutha will be handed over to her parents, but Maruthi Rao opposed this idea.

Meanwhile, Pranay’s family started preparation for grand wedding reception, which multiplied Rao’s pain and he got admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad from August 16 to 23 for a surgery of hydrocele, to avoid embarrassment.  Till then he felt that many did not knew about his daughter’s marriage and he will get her back before the news spreads out, but with the reception, everyone in the town will know about the marriage and that will affect his status.

However, after coming to know about his daughter’s pregnancy, he felt a heart burn and pressurizes his associates to execute their plan at the earliest.Bari, asked his old friend Subhash Sharma from Samastipur district in Bihar to join them, to which Sharma agreed. On September 13, Amruthavarshini called her mother Girija and told that they would be going to check up on Friday. Following a tip-off Maruthi Rao informed to Bari and tells that it should be completed at any cost, who passes the information to Asghar and Subhash.

After the medical check-up, when the trio came out, Subhash approached him from the rear and attacked with a sharp weapon. After Pranay collapsed, Subhash and Asghar fled from the spot and arrived at Nalgonda by road. 

Subhash went to Patna via Bengaluru, while Asgar went home in Nalgonda. Bari who was coordinating from Nalgonda, also fled to Maharashtra. “Based on the CCTV camera footages, technical evidences and other clues, the accused are arrested and produced before the court for judicial remand. Maruthi Rao, Subhash Sharma, Asgar Ali, Abdul Bari, Kareem have direct link with the incident, while Sravan had a knowledge and Shiva helped Maruthi Rao by giving shelter after the incident.” said Ranganath. 
Though they did not offer a specific amount to Subhash, they gave him `30,000 for expenses.