The Prakasam police claimed to have solved the mystery behind the murder of a mobile phone shop owner here, and also achieved a breakthrough in 36 property offence cases with the arrest of nine persons, leading to recovery of valuables worth Rs. 9.2 lakh from them.
Superintendent of Police C.M. Trivikram Varma said the police were clueless when the burnt body of a mobile phone shop owner, M. Venkata Subba Rao, was found on December3. The police zeroed in on 20-year-old autorickshaw driver, Ramavath Yesu Naik from Nakrekal in neighbouring Guntur district, with whom the victim had acquaintance.
The accused reportedly parked the victim's motorcycle in the bus station here before decamping with sleek mobile phones after allegedly slitting the throat of Subba Rao in an inebriated condition, and setting afire his body with petrol. A knife, T-shirt he was wearing while committing the offence were seized, as also 62 mobile phones, 15 memory cards, a motorcycle and Rs 1000 in cash, the SP added.
Other cases
Police also seized 320 kg of copper wire, 210 metres of aluminium wire worth Rs 2.1 lakh in connection with 14 offences from five offenders from Kothapatnam A. Tirupatiah (50), N. Potharaju (27), N. Rosaiah (45), A. Venkateswarlu (40) and K. Jakkaiah(40). They had had allegedly struck at transformers in remote places in Markapur, Ardaveedu, Tripurantakam, Cumbum, Bestavaripeta, Kumarole during night time.
Seven computers and accessories, a video camera and home theatre system were recovered from a degree college student, N. Venkateswarulu from Giddalur, who was allegedly addicted to vices, the SP said, adding seven motorcycles worth Rs. 3 lakh were recovered from one Harish Reddy (23), who had allegedly stolen them using duplicate keys. Five mobile phones worth Rs. 40,000 were also recovered from one Md. Ali from Pamur, he added.
The police official asked all shop keepers to install video cameras to capture the movement of offenders and obtain valuable clues during investigation.
