5 held in rowdy-sheeter murder case

The special teams formed by the city police on Friday arrested five members who ganged up to allegedly kill notorious rowdy-sheeter B. Narasimha Murthy alias Natchu.

The rowdy-sheeter was brutally done to death on Monday night at about 9 at an isolated spot near Zilla Parishad, under MR Peta Police Station limits. Harassment of the rowdy-sheeter, who extorted huge sums of money from the accused, is said to be the main cause for his murder.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) C.M. Trivikram Varma, it was a planned operation. The deceased who was known to the accused was invited to the spot for a liquor party. After consuming liquor and when the deceased was in inebriated condition, he was first hit by iron rods on the head and then a boulder was used to smash his skull. The rowdy-sheeter died on the spot and his body was recovered the next day, said Dr. Trivikram Varma.

The accused were Sigadam Santhosh Kumar (23), a resident of Kommadi, Medisetty Varaprasad (23) of Zilla Parishad area, Kona Kanakaraju (26) of Maharanipeta, Bammidi Ravi Kumar Yadav (24) of Kommadi, and Boga Arjun (19) of Zilla Parishad.

While Santhosh was an auto-rickshaw driver, Varaprasad and Kanakaraju were engaged in selling ‘muri-mixture’ on the Beach Road and Ravi Kumar and Arjun were salesmen at a bags shop near Jagadamba.

Muscle power

According to the DCP, the deceased used his muscle power to bully the accused in the past and extorted money and material at free will. Unable to bear the harassment, they hatched a plan to eliminate Narasimha Murthy.

Missed opportunity by police

It is learnt that a few weeks ago, Narasimha Murthy had a heated altercation with Santhosh, and the former reportedly chased Santhosh with a knife vowing to kill him. A complaint was reportedly lodged with the MR Peta police station by Santhosh, but no action was taken.

He was on bail, for directly being involved in the murder of Anil Kumar, a rowdy-sheeter, in 2015 and one Nemi Raju in 2006. This apart, he was also involved in four property offences.

Despite being on bail in murder cases, he was having a free run on his extortion racket. It took less than 72 hours for the special teams, led by ACP (East) Ramana, to crack the case, as it is learnt that the killers had left some clues at the scene of offence.

The killers after committing the crime moved to Vizianagaram on Monday night and they were caught on Friday near Boyapalem, after they were tactfully drawn out from their hideout, said a senior officer from CTF.