Accused In Pranay Murder Paraded Before Media

The Nalgonda police produced the accused in the Perumalla Pranay Kumar murder case before the media this evening.

Giving details to the media, district SP Ranganath said that the murder of Pranay took place as the boy and the girl, Amrutha Varshini, belonged to different castes.

"We have arrested seven persons. The murderer is Subash Sharma from Bihar, a hired assassin. We have produced him in the Samasthipur court for a transit remand. Amrutha's father Maruthi Rao got Subash to murder Pranay for a price of Rs 1 crore. In this case Maruthi Rao is A-1, Subhash Sharma is A-2, Asghar Ali is A-3, Mohammed Bhari is A-4, Abdul Kharif is A-5, Maruthi Rao's brother Sravan Kumar is A-6 and Maruthi Rao's driver Shiva Kumar is A-7," Ranganath said.

The SP continued to explain, saying, "There have already been terror cases against Asghar Ali and Mohammed Bhari. Mohammed Bhari was living in Malakpet in Hyderabad. He was acquainted with Maruthi Rao since 2012. Asghar Ali and Mohammed Bhari knew each other from their days in the Rajahmundry jail. Miryalaguda town Congress president Karim cooperated with them all. Pranay and Amrutha got married in January 2018. They stopped their education abruptly due to the marriage. Rao threatened Pranay a few times, and the latter installed CC cameras at his house. Rao planned to murder Pranay for the first time in the first week of July. Karim spoke to the murderers on behalf of Rao. Karim, Asghar and Bhari planned the murder together. They discussed the deal while sitting in a car at Miryalaguda's Autonagar. They entered a deal worth Rs. 50 lakhs, and were paid Rs 15 lakhs in advance. They purchased a Scooty to escape from the scene after the murder. They also purchased three fake SIMs to speak on the issue.

"The first attempt on August 14 failed. On August 22, Subash Sharma came to Miryalaguda. They then tried to kill Pranay again in the first week of September. For this, they brought some others from Hyderabad. Asghar Ali left that effort as didn't like their behaviour. That attempt did not work either.

"The murder finally took place on September 14 at 1.30 pm. Sharma first asked Pranay's father whether they would give their car for hire, in an effort at a recce. Sharma then followed the car on his bike. He murdered Pranay outside the hospital following the directions of Asghar Ali.

"There were differences between Maruthi Rao and his brother Sravan Kumar. Sravan Kumar and Shiva Kumar had no involvement in the murder - they only helped Maruthi Rao escape from the place."

Ranganath said that they had cracked the case within four days with the help of several agencies.

No political leaders were linked to the murder, the SP said. "There is no truth in the allegations against former MLA Vemula Veeresham. Also, Maruthi Rao joined the TRS only recently. Karim was a Congress leader and Mohammed Bhari is an MIM leader, so there is no specific political party behind the murder," he said. No Nayeem's followers were linked to the murder, either, he added.

"Even Amrutha's mother didn't know about the murder. Maruthi Rao made his wife believe in him to get the information about his daughter's whereabouts. I urge people not to spread false news in the social media," Ranganath added.

The SP said that the police would take up investigation if anyone lodged any complaints against Maruthi Rao's land dealings.