A writ petition seeking transfer of the investigation into the lawyer couple murder case to CBI from the Ramagiri police of Ramagundam commissionerate has been filed in Telangana High Court.
The plea filed by slain advocate Gattu Vaman Rao’s father Gattu Kishan Rao is likely to come up for hearing in next two to three days. The petitioner also wanted five police officers, including Ramagundam Police Commissioner V. Satyanarayana, to be transferred from their present postings to ensure free and fair investigation of the case.
Vaman Rao and his wife P.V. Nagamani, both practising lawyers of Telangana High Court, were hacked to death during daytime on the outskirts of Kalvacherla on Manthani-Peddapally road on February 17. A day after the murder, police arrested three persons Kunta Srinu, Chiranjeevi and Kumar accusing them of involvement in the gory killing of the wife and the husband.
An accomplice of the trio and alleged key conspirator, Bittu Srinu, was also picked up on the day of their arrest. His arrest was announced four days later formally, after interrogation of nearly four consecutive days.
The petitioner contended that police forced him to write complaint as per their whims and fancies instead of facts and thus completely deviated from the line of investigation.
The police were trying to project that the murders were executed due to a local temple issue which was not correct, according to the petitioner.
He stated in the plea that police were imposing several restrictions on them to ensure real conspiracy behind the double murders did not come to light. He maintained that his son and daughter-in-law had lodged complaints on different occasions against local politicians with regard to mining and sand mafia in Peddapalli and Manthani areas.
He claimed that a letter written by his daughter-in-law Nagamani over the alleged custodial death of a dalit Sheelam Rangaiah was taken up as PIL petition by the HC. Despite threats from some politicians and local police officers over proceeding with the PIL plea, the lawyer couple fought believing that local mining and sand mafia had a role to play in Rangaiah’s local death, the petitioner stated.
