The city police on Thursday caught a realtor from Rayalaseema with faction links, who allegedly plotted the murder of a city-based chartered accountant over a land row in Vijayawada and got it executed in Medak by five hired killers.
A licensed .32 pistol with six live rounds was seized from the murder mastermind, T. Rajasekhar Reddy, 41, who was one of the accused persons in the sensational Jubilee Hills car bomb blast case.
Cited as 15th accused in that case, Reddy had managed to evade police for 10 years before obtaining anticipatory bail in 2009.
He was still facing trial in the case, the Hyderabad Police Commissioner, A.K. Khan, said at a press conference. The arrested gang of hired killers led by K. Srinivas Goud, 37, a vehicle recovery agent, hail from Ramachandrapuram in neighbouring Medak district.
Rs 2 lakh advance
Reddy allegedly promised to pay Rs. 15 lakh for the killing and paid nearly Rs. 2 lakh as advance. From stalking the 64-year-old murder victim, Vamaraju Sri Chakrapani, living in Krishnanagar of Jubilee Hills, to his elimination, every step was planned by Reddy.
The CA went to Lion's Club building near Hotel Paradise in Secunderabad to attend a function on February 21. The assailants were already following him.
Hit vitim with car
Their plan was to hit him with a four wheeler and take him into the vehicle in the guise of shifting him to hospital. As per the plan, they hit him with their Sumo as Chakrapani was about to step into his car. As he fell on the road, they got off their vehicle and tried to apologise to him for the accident.
“We'll take you to hospital for tests to ensure there are no serious injuries,” they told him and took him in their vehicle. The unsuspecting Chakrapani was made to believe that they were genuinely concerned about his health and that he was being driven to a hospital. However, they headed towards Sangareddy.
Slit throat
Even as they were on the move, they slit his throat with a surgical blade, dumped his body at Kandi village near Sangareddy, poured petrol, burnt the body.
They later drove to Tirupati and returned to the city a day later. The partially burnt body was found by local police the following day.
On learning about the murder and the victim's car being found at Paradise, the Commissioner's Task Force (North), led by Inspector L. Raja Venkat Reddy, investigated the case and caught the killers.
