Emotions run high at Maruthi Rao’s funeral

T. Maruthi Rao, the prime accused in the ‘honour killing’ of Dalit youth P. Pranay Kumar in September 2018, was found dead at Arya Vysya Bhavan in Hyderabad.

March 10, 2020 09:24 am | Updated December 03, 2021 08:48 am IST - Miryalaguda, NALGONDA

Amrutha Varshini at the Hindu crematorium in Miryalaguda on Monday.

Amrutha Varshini at the Hindu crematorium in Miryalaguda on Monday.

Emotions ran high at the funeral of Maruthi Rao when the police escorted his estranged daughter Amrutha Varshini to the pyre for a final glimpse on Monday.

The situation was peaceful till the procession reached Shabunagar Hindu cemetery from Reddy Colony. However, it soon became tense as the police cordoned off the north entry and got its “rope party” ready. Ms. Amrutha was driven in the police department’s SUV till the cremation platform, where the pyre was ready, and just distance away were slogan-shouting people with clenched fists.

“Amrutha go back” slogans rent the air for all of the 30 seconds she was out of the vehicle, and her final glimpse of Maruthi Rao was denied amid the tension. Police soon whisked her away as the situation appeared to go out of hand, and only later, johar Maruthi Rao, Maruthi Rao amar rahe , slogans calmed the tempers.

 

The final journey of the town’s business icon started at Reddy Colony on a flower-bedecked tractor-trolley, with his wife Girija and sisters seated by his side. Most shops remained closed for Holi festival, and the two-kilometre final procession, led by Maruthi Rao’s brother Shravan Kumar, who carried the cremation urn passed smoothly through Rajiv Chowk, the bylanes, and reached Shabunagar.

Miryalaguda MLA N. Bhaskar Rao consoled the Tirunagaru family and was also helpful to Amrutha on her visit to the crematorium.

T. Maruthi Rao, the prime accused in the ‘honour killing’ of Dalit youth P. Pranay Kumar in September 2018, whom his only daughter Amrutha Varshini married, was found dead at Arya Vysya Bhavan in Hyderabad on Sunday.

 

Amrutha Varshini described the sudden death of her father as sad, and said she wasn’t against her family, but for the murder of her husband Perumalla Pranay Kumar.

“I was demanding justice for Pranay. I would have been happy if Maruthi Rao was awarded death penalty, life or any punishment, whichever as proved and awarded by the court. But suicide is sad,” she said, responding to reporter’s questions.

Speaking outside her in-laws’ house at Muthireddykunta, hours after her father was cremated, she stressed that she would reunite with her mother as per her father’s last wish, but would not break off ties with the in-laws..

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