Telangana politician who paid ₹1 crore to get son-in-law killed found dead

Saifabad’s assistant commissioner of police C Venugopal Reddy confirmed 55-year-old Tirunagari Maruthi Rao had died but said the exact cause of death was not known.

A man, accused of killing a 24-year-old Dalit man for marrying his daughter against his wishes in 2018, committed suicide in a guesthouse in Hyderabad on Sunday morning, the police said.

Saifabad police inspector Ch Saidi Reddy said while speaking to reporters that the body of 55-year-old Tirunagari Maruthi Rao was found dead in suspicious circumstances inside the Arya Vysya Bhavan, a guesthouse of the traders’ community at Khairatabad, at around 7.30am.

The police shifted the body to Osmania General Hospital for an autopsy.

“The autopsy revealed that he had consumed poison. We handed over the body to his family members – his wife Girija and brother Sravan – in the afternoon,” Reddy said.

The inspector said Rao had left a suicide note in the room for his wife and daughter.

“Girja, please pardon me. Amrutha, please return to mother,” Rao wrote in his brief suicide note.

According to preliminary inquiries by the police, Rao had checked into Arya Vysya Bhavan late on Saturday. His driver slept in the car within the premises of the guesthouse.

“In the morning, Rao’s wife from Miryalaguda tried to contact him but he did not pick up calls. Then she called the driver, who went to his room and knocked at the door,” an official of Saifabad police station said.

“When Rao did not respond, he alerted the guesthouse staff, who called the police immediately. The police broke open the door only to find Rao lying dead on his bed,” the official added.

Maruthi’s brother Sravan said at the Osmania Hospital that there were no disputes in the family.

“In fact, I had faced imprisonment in Pranay murder case only because I had warned Amrutha earlier for marrying him. After I came out on bail, I had not been in touch with my brother,” he said as he spoke to reporters.

He said Rao had been under psychological pressure, as the murder case had come up to the trial stage. “The charge sheet is going to be filed shortly and that would have caused him agony,” Sravan said.

Rao, a prominent realtor and politician from Miryalaguda town, was on bail since April 2019 in connection with the killing of Perumalla Pranay for marrying his daughter Amrutha Varshini against his wishes. Pranay and Amrutha were in love since they were in school.

Perumalla 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 after meeting a doctor.

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, with the help of a suspected Islamic terrorist, his close aide and a local Congress leader to eliminate Pranay.

Rao allegedly paid ₹1 crore to the contract killer Subhash Sharma from Samastipur in Bihar to execute the murder.

Amrutha she had neither seen nor talked to her father since the murder of her husband.

“I came to know about my father’s death only through media. I do not know why he committed suicide. Maybe, he was regretting killing my husband,” she said while speaking to reporters in Miryalaguda.