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Main accused in T’gana hate crime kills self: Police
Hyderabad: Tirunagari Maruthi Rao (55), the prime accused for the murder of his 24-year old Dalit Christian son-in-law Perumalla Pranay at Miryalaguda town in Telangana’s
Hyderabad: Tirunagari Maruthi Rao (55), the prime accused for the murder of his 24-year old Dalit Christian son-in-law Perumalla Pranay at Miryalaguda town in Telangana’s Nalgonda district in September 2018, committed suicide at a guest house in Hyderabad on Sunday morning, the police said.
Saifabad police inspector Ch Saidi Reddy said that Rao’s body was found dead under suspicious circumstances at Arya Vysya Bhavan, a guest house at Khairatabad, at around 7:30 am.
The police sent Rao’s body to Osmania General Hospital for post-mortem examiniation. “The autopsy revealed that he had consumed poison. We have handed over the body to his family members – his wife Girija and brother Sravan – in the afternoon,” Reddy said.
He said Rao left behind a suicide note that sought his wife’s pardon for taking the extreme step and also appealed to his daughter Amrutha Varshini to go back to her mother. “Girija, please pardon me. Amrutha, please return to your mother,” read the brief suicide note.
According to preliminary inquiries by the police, Rao had checked into the guest house late on Saturday. He was staying in room number 306, while his driver slept in the car within the premises of the guest house.
“On Sunday morning, Rao’s wife tried calling him from Miryalaguda, but he didn’t take the call. Then she called the driver, who went to his room and knocked at the door,” an official of Saifabad police station said.
“When Rao didn’t respond, he alerted the guest house staff, who called the police. The police broke open the door to find Rao lying dead on his bed,” the official added.
Rao, a prominent realtor from Miryalaguda, had been on bail since April 2019 in connection with the killing of Pranay for marrying his daughter Amrutha against his wishes.
Pranay’s murder in broad daylight on September 14, 2018, created a nationwide sensation. Pranay was hacked to death at the entrance of a hospital as he was coming out with his pregnant wife Amrutha.
Four days later, Nalgonda Police arrested Rao, his brother Sravan and three others in connection with the murder. The police said Rao had hired a contract killer from Bihar’s Samastipur, with the help of a suspected Islamic terrorist, his close aide and a local Congress leader to eliminate Pranay.
Rao allegedly paid Rs 1 crore to the contract killer Subhash Sharma to kill Pranay.
Amrutha told local reporters in Miryalguda that she had neither seen nor talked to her father since Pranay’s murder. “I came to know about my father’s death only through media. I don’t know the reason behind his suicide. May be, he regretted killing my husband,” she said.
Sravan told reporters at Osmania General Hospital that there were no dispute in the family. “I went to jail in the murder case because I had earlier warned Amrutha for marrying him. I was not in touch with my brother since I came out on bail,” he said.
He said his brother had been under a lot of psychological pressure because the trial in the case would begin shortly. “The chargesheet is going to be filed shortly and that would have caused him agony,” Sravan added.
