Joint Secretary of the Telangana Agriculture Corporation D. V. Rao and his son D. Venkata Sukruth were both arrested on Tuesday by the Jubilee Hills police for murder of their driver B. Nagaraju and attempting to conceal the evidence. The deceased driver Nagaraju had been working with Mr. Rao’s estranged wife Anita, who is a lawyer.
The IAS officer’s son killed the driver after the former allegedly made ‘homosexual’ advances towards Sukruth, said the police.
Drinking session
The murder took place in the intervening night of March 17 and 18 at Sai Kalyan Residency, where Sukruth and Nagaraju had gone to have a drink. They used to go there regularly as the deceased knew the building’s watchman. West zone Deputy Commissioner A. Venkateswara Rao said that after Nagaraju made the sexual advances, there was a scuffle after which Sukruth caught the driver’s neck and hit him with a brick.
Throws cellphone
CCTV footage from the apartment showed Sukruth leaving the place at 11.30 p.m. on March 17, and returning to take the keys of a bike on which he and Nagaraju had gone there. Sukruth then left on the bike to his house at Madhura Nagar, took bath, changed his dress and returned to Sai Kalyan Residency, and confirmed that Nagaraju was dead. He later took Nagaraju’s cellphone and threw it away.
Later, Sukruth informed his father and family members, after which all of them decided to conceal Nagaraju’s body.
On March 18, the father-son duo went to Sukruth’s house at Madhura Nagar. Rao also asked his younger son and his friend to help. All of them went to Kalyan Residency, where Sukruth wrapped Nagraj’s decomposed body in a bedsheet and tried to bring it to the fifth floor near the lift.
However, M. Janaki Ramaiah, a resident of flat No. 502 in the building saw him and questioned him. By then, other flat members also came out, after which Sukruth fled from there by jumping into the adjoining apartment’s compound. The watchman Srinu saw him running away. A fruit seller D. Suresh who was sleeping outside the apartment saw Rao and others leaving.
On Tuesday, after the police booked the IAS officer as well, he was admitted to a private hospital as he had fainted at the Jubilee Hills police station, said the DCP. Rao had refused to eat food and did not cooperate with the investigation, said Mr. Venkateswara Rao. “When he is physically fit, he will be produced before the court for judicial custody,” he added, while addressing a press conference.
Prior to this development, the police had only booked Rao’s son Sukruth for the murder. When questioned about the allegation of sexual advances made by the deceased, the DCP said it was what Sukruth had told the police.
