PEDDAPALLI : One can still see fear and disgust in the eyes of RTC driver Md Tajuddin as he recalls the events of the fateful day when High Court lawyer couple Gattu Vaman Rao and PV Nagamani were mercilessly hacked to death.“After hacking the lawyer couple multiple times, Kunta Srinivas and Chiranjeevi fled from the spot in the car they arrived itself. Maybe they panicked. As a result, they even forgot to close the doors of the vehicle. I clearly remember, their car moved for quite some distance with the doors remaining open,” Md Tajuddin, one of the 14 prosecution witnesses told TNIE.
Tajuddin, who works as a driver at the Manthani RTC depot, says that he did not grasp what was going on in the beginning. “I thought it was an accident. The accused persons came from the opposite direction and rammed the victims’ car. They immediately came out and smashed open the window pane of the driver’s door. Once they managed to open the door of the victims’ car, their panic-stricken driver ran away. There were about eight to 10 elderly passengers in the bus, who were shocked to see the gory crime. Noticing this, I moved the bus a bit further. In the meantime, a woman passenger, unable to bear the sight, fainted in the bus,” Tajuddin recollects the events slowly.
Since the incident was happening on the left side of the side of the bus, most passengers seated there immediately shifted to the right, he added.“I believe that the accused persons were in an inebriated condition. They were ruthless and hence, nobody dared to stop them or prevent the crime. Since that day, I still get the jitters by just thinking about the events,” a traumatised Tajuddin said.
Security for witnesses
In the meantime, authorities concerned said that police security has been provided to witnesses who recently recorded their statement at the Additional Munsif Magistrate Court in Manthani. However, a few witnesses turned down security citing personal reasons. Kunta Srinivas and two other accused persons have been shifted to Warangal Central Jail for judicial custody. On the other hand, Bittu Seenu’s police custody will end on Sunday.