Straight out of a James Hadley Chase novel, the city police cracked a murder case, which was closed as an accident case about a year ago, and arrested five persons, including cousin of the deceased and her husband, here on Monday.
The deceased Kadiri Venkatesh (22) was declared dead after accidentally falling from a running train. His body was found beside the tracks near Samalkota in East Godavari district on August 11, 2015 by the Government Railway Police, and after inquest it was concluded as a death due to accident and a case under Cr Pc Section 174 was registered for death under suspicious condition and the case was closed.
His body was later handed over to his sister and cremated.
But after about a year, sources leaked the information that it was a well-planned murder and a painstaking investigation by the City Task Force (CTF) and the Three Town Police station, it turned out to be a murder.
The deceased, a congenital HIV patient and an orphan as he had lost his parents at a young age, was living with his cousin Kuppili Madhuri and brother-in-law Kuppili Nagendra.
Fully knowing that Venkatesh was living with HIV and his life span would be short, both Mahduri and Nagendra, hatched a plan.
They fabricated documents such as IT returns and procured Aadhaar card for the deceased and obtained single premium term policies from various banks and insurance companies such as LIC, HDFC, SBI and ICICI to the tune of Rs. 1.19 crore, during 2014 -15. But as Venkatesh was living a healthy life, the couple decided to eliminate him.
They roped in Kurmana Kameswara Rao alias Kamesh, a suspect-sheeter, Nainapu Rama Chandra Prasad, who was earlier involved in a murder case, and Bokka Rama Prasad alias Bose.
The five on August 10, 2015, procured individual tickets in general compartment in Puri- Tirupathi Express to go to Vijayawada under the pretext to visit the Kanakadurga Temple. They also bought a ticket for Venkatesh and asked him to accompany them and asked him to carry the Aadhaar card.
In the wee hours of August 11, Kamesh took Venkatesh near the compartment door and pushed him out of the speeding train.
Meanwhile, the couple applied for the claims and received about Rs. 69 lakh from LIC, SBI and HDFC. Only ICICI Bank stopped the claim of Rs. 50 lakh, based on certain queries, said DCP (Law and Order) Navin Gulati. The couple bought a flat for Rs. 25 lakh at Ram Nagar, and a car, deposited Rs. 12 lakh as FD in banks and purchased some jewellery, said ACP Task Force I. Chittbabu.
Based on evidences from various banks and other documents, the CTF team arrested Bose on Sunday and the remaining four on Monday.
