The Peddapalli police today arrested a fourth person in connection with the
grisly murder of an advocate couple, Gattu Vaman Rao and his wife P V Nagamani, that took place in Peddapalli on February 17.
Following the arrest of three other suspects, Kunta Srinivas, Akkapaka Kumar and Vasantha Rao, yesterday, one Bittu Srinu, a relative of Peddapalli Zilla Parishad Chairman Putta Madhukar, was nabbed today.
A special police team, led by Godavarikhani ACP Umender, went to Srinu's Manthani residence this afternoon, and took him into custody.
The arrest was made after the other three suspects claimed that Srinu had helped them commit the gruesome crime - he was reportedly the one who had helped them arrange a vehicle, and the sickles that were used to kill the two lawyers.
Based on the information provided by the three others, Srinu's name, which was not originally included in the complaint lodged by Vaman Rao’s father Kishan Rao, was also added to the FIR.
(While Vaman Rao himself had reportedly mentioned Srinu's name to passers-by who had stopped to help him, following the attack, TPCC head N Uttam Kumar Reddy too had
hinted at the involvement of Putta Madhukar in the incident.)
All four of the accused have been remanded to 14-day judicial custody, and will be produced in a local court in Peddapalli soon.
The involvement of Srinu in the double murder, many claim, is not a surprise as the two victims had filed several cases against Putta Madhukar, who is a close relative of his. Srinu is even Chairman of the Putta Lingamma Charitable Trust, run by Madhukar in memory of his mother.
Srinu himself had reportedly had quite a few confrontations with the two advocates as Vaman Rao had said he would file a case against the former for allegedly constructing a house on government land. Some sources claim that this had even prompted Srinu to threaten Rao against doing so.
Meanwhile, the Telangana unit of the NSUI, the student wing of the Congress, had staged a massive rally at the Himayath Nagar crossroads earlier in the day, demanding that the Telangana government punish those involved in the ghastly crime at the earliest.
NSUI President Balmuri Venkat called the killings a "state-sponsored murder", and alleged that the goondas of the ruling party were behind the incident. He demanded that the state government take stringent steps to prevent such murders in the future.