Telangana 'honor-killing': Victim's father-in-law paid Rs. 1cr for his murder
In the murder of 23-year-old P Pranay Kumar in Nalgonda district of Telangana, the father of his wife, assailant, and five others have been arrested. Pranay's wife Amrutha Varshini alleged her father, Maruti Rao, didn't approve of their marriage and got him murdered. Pranay was a Dalit Christian man, and Amrutha is an upper-caste Hindu. He paid Rs. 1 cr to contract killers.
Details of Pranay's murder are unsettling. On September 14, as he was leaving a hospital in Miryalguda with his pregnant wife, a hitman attacked him with a machete, killing him on the spot. The assailant was identified as Subhash Kumar Sharma. He was apprehended in Bihar's Samastipur and brought to Nalgonda on a transit warrant. Other accused are Asghar Ali and Abdul Bari.
Rao, with the help of others, schemed the murder in June-July. According to police, Asgar, Bari, Karim and Rao, sat in a car and brokered the deal months ago. The assailants wanted Rs. 2.5 crore for the 'task', and finally the deal was struck for Rs. 1 crore. They wanted Rs. 50 lakh in advance, but they got Rs. 16 lakh.
Since August 9, the hired killers did a recce of various areas Pranay visited. Police said Rao wanted to kill Pranay more so after a wedding reception was held for the couple in August. Amrutha, who belonged to Vyshya community, and Pranay, a Dalit, loved each other since school days. Rao strongly opposed their union and decided to kill Pranay to save his 'honor'.
Amrutha has refused to go back to her paternal home and said she would give birth to Pranay's child. Speaking about her father, she said he called her multiple times on the day of Pranay's murder and asked her to abort the foetus. "He had told me multiple times that he would kill him as I did not obey his wishes," she said.
Rao, an influential real estate developer, joined TRS recently. He was obsessed with bringing his daughter home, police said. After he failed to convince her for an abortion, he thought of killing Pranay, said AV Ranganath, Nalgonda SP. He told police his 'prestige' was more important than his daughter's happiness. Notably, Asghar Ali was acquitted in the murder of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya.
