It was a gang of three persons that torched to death a person and attempted to kill another in a similar fashion in Secunderabad three weeks ago, police revealed on Friday.
The accused, Mohd. Amer, Syed Abdul Akheel and Mohd. Anwar used to engage sex workers and were also beaten up for their activities by footpath dwellers. This made them develop a kind of hatred towards those who sleep on pavements and they resorted to the ghastly act of setting ablaze the footpath dwellers on the intervening night of April 1 and 2, the police said. As footpath dwellers were set afire despite heightened security by police in view of Hanuman Jayanti rally, many suspected that the incident had a communal angle. While Counter Intelligence teams began verifying the possible complicity of banned outfits, Hyderabad Police Commissioner M. Mahender Reddy supervised the investigation. The only clues were the video clips recorded by surveillance cameras in Secunderabad. After the painstaking analysis of scores of video clips from different sources, investigators narrowed down on the accused. Inquiries revealed that the accused got habituated to drinking liquor and used to engage sex workers at times, Mahankali ACP V. Tirupathi said. On that night, the trio had dinner at a hotel in Chaderghat before proceeding towards Secunderabad looking for sex workers. On seeing a large number of policemen – deployed for Hanuman Jayanti – they left for Old Bhoiguda and found a petty vendor, Narsing Rao, sleeping on the roadside. One of the accused picked up an argument with Rao, sprinkled petrol on him and set him afire. They later went to Bata Crossroads and set ablaze an auto-rickshaw driver Anand Panchal, who later died while undergoing treatment, the police said.
The accused developed hatred towards footpath dwellers as they were beaten up by the latter some time ago
