Kurnool Fourth Additional District Sessions (Family) Court Judge S. Premavathi sentenced Shaik Kasim Basha, 28, and his friend Deva alias Jani, 25, of Ambedkarnagar in Kurnool to life imprisonment and levied a fine of Rs. 2,000 each on them on charges of killing one M.V. Prabhu from Kerala, who was working as a software engineer in Bengaluru, and setting ablaze his body near a petrol pump on the outskirts of Kurnool on January 12, 2013.
Prabhu from Kozhikode in Kerala, who was on his way from Hyderabad to Bengaluru, stopped his car at a bridge near Gooty petrol pump on the outskirts of Kurnool on the midnight of January 12 in 2013 and slept. Motorcycle-borne Khasim and Deva woke up Prabhu and asked him to part with his money. They severely beat up Prabhu when the latter tried to flee. They snatched away six ATM cards and two mobile phones from him and forced him to state the PIN numbers of the ATM cards by threatening to kill him, police said.
When their attempts to draw money using ATM cards failed, the duo tortured Prabhu, made him write down the pin numbers of the ATM cards on a piece of paper and beat him to death, police said. Thereafter, the accused set ablaze the body after pouring petrol on it and fled from the scene in his car. As Prabhu did not return home even after a month, his brother lodged a complaint with the Kurnool police in February 5, 2013. Police registered a man missing case and Kurnool Taluk Circle Inspector P.V. Naidu arrested the duo on February 9, 2013 after they confessed to the crime during investigation.
