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TRS former MLA arrested in lawyer couple’s murder case: Police
Hyderabad Telangana Police on Saturday arrested Peddapalli zilla parishad chairman and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) former legislator Putta Madhukar in connection with the murder of an advocate couple in broad day light in Peddapalli district on February 17
Hyderabad
Telangana Police on Saturday arrested Peddapalli zilla parishad chairman and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) former legislator Putta Madhukar in connection with the murder of an advocate couple in broad day light in Peddapalli district on February 17.
According to police, they took Madhukar into custody from Bhimavaram town in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district in the early hours on Saturday. He was brought to Ramagundam police commissionerate later in the evening.
A statement from Ramagundam police said Madhukar was absconding from his house in Peddapalli for the last 10 days after switching off his mobile phone. Police said they are questioning the leader to find out why he had gone underground and to where.
On February 17, high court advocates Gattu Vamana Rao (53) and his wife P V Nagamani (50) were waylaid and hacked to death by some miscreants at Kalvacharla village in Ramagiri block while they were returning after a court case at Manthani, according to police, who had earlier questioned Madhukar in connection with the couple’s murder.
Ramagundam police said Vamana Rao’s father Kishan Rao has recently lodged another complaint in connection with the murder, suspecting it was abetted by Madhukar. “Based on the complaint, police have taken the zilla parishad chairman into custody for questioning,” the statement said.
Madhukar represented Manthani assembly constituency from the TRS ticket between 2014 and 2018. In December 2018 assembly elections, he lost to D Sridhar Babu of the Congress.
According to police, Madhukar’s nephew Bittu Srinu and his followers, who were accused in the murder of the advocate couple, are in judicial custody.
On April 6, following a direction from Telangana high court, which has taken suo motu cognizance of the murder case, police registered a case against Madhukar’s wife and Manthani municipal chairperson Putta Shailaja for allowing Bittu Srinu to use her mobile phone to make a video call with someone from the court premises.
A police official from Ramagundam said on condition of anonymity that Madhukar was also a close associate of senior TRS leader and former state health minister Eatala Rajender, who was sacked from the cabinet by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao following allegations of encroachment of lands assigned to Dalits in Medak district.
“It is suspected that Madhukar was also involved in various land transactions in Karimnagar district along with Eatala. We are also probing this angle,” the official said.
