Accused was Vaman Rao’s friend-turned-foe

‘Rao was instrumental in securing MPTC ticket to Srinu’

It is a classic case of friend-turned-foe. Kunta Srinu, who emerged as the prime accused in the gory killing of lawyer Gattu Vaman Rao, was the latter’s friend once.

Srinu and Rao, whose wife Nagamani too was murdered on Wednesday near Kalvacherla on Peddapalli-Manthani main road, hail from Gunjapadugu village. Their houses were located within a kilometre distance.

In their attempts to ascertain possible motives behind the lawyer couple murder, investigators stumbled upon the facts that Srinu and Rao moved closely in the past. “Both were closely associated with local Congress leaders. In fact, it is said that Rao was instrumental in securing MPTC ticket to Srinu,” police sources said. Eventually, Srinu snapped ties with Rao and joined ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Presently, he is the party’s mandal president. Interestingly, Srinu’s sibling Raju, who is the present village sarpanch, continued to be friends with Rao.

Police are verifying information that the gram panchayat had issued notice to Srinu over the construction of a house the latter had undertaken recently. “It is said that a flexi banner was tied in the village about the notice over illegal construction of the house. This could have further widened rift between them,” police officers pursuing different leads said on condition of anonymity.

On the other hand, Srinu was leading the villagers in building a temple in the village with the help of a private company which assigned some project work in the area. Investigators are ascertaining unconfirmed reports that Rao had moved the HC alleging that religious structure was coming up in public land.

With the court directions, the temple construction got stalled. This, police believe, could have resulted in further animosity between Srinu and Rao. “It is too early to come to any conclusion about the exact motive behind the double murder,” said the officers gathering information from different sources.

The killers lay in wait on the outskirts of Kalvacheral, which was nearly 15 kms off from Manthani. As the lawyer’s couple reached the spot, the killers intercepted their car.

“First they broke window panes of the car on driver side. Driver took out his seat belt and fled. Then they dragged Rao out and murdered him,” the police said reconstructing the crime scene. Later, they attacked Nagamani inside the car and killed her too, believe the police.