It was not an attempt on the life of former Minister M. Mukesh Goud’s son M. Vikram Goud but a drama planned and executed by the latter through a gang of five hired assailants, the investigators found on Wednesday.
Hyderabad police arrested five persons, including Ahmed Shaik of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, who were allegedly hired by Vikram “to shoot him without causing harm to his life.” A firearm used by Ahmed was recovered.
Police officials said that Vikram invested money in mining in Odisha and in some business ventures in Telangana. His partners failed to return the money he had invested. On the other hand, he borrowed nearly ₹ 2 crore from some persons and was unable to return the same.
Investigators said that Vikram hatched the plot of attempt to kill him so that he can implicate names of his partners who were not returning money and postpone payment of his debts. Initially, he hired four men from Anantapur to execute his plan.
“As per the plan, the hired persons would shoot him with a firearm without causing danger to his life. But the quartet had delayed its execution,” a police officer said. As Vikram mounted pressure on the gang of Anantapur to enact the shooting drama, the latter approached Shaik.
As suggested by Vikram, Shaik came to his rented house in Banjara Hills of Hyderabad in the early hours of Friday. “In the guise of going to dargah for food distribution, I woke up my wife and asked her to be ready to go out by 3 a.m. This I did because my wife would be available to shift me to hospital immediately,” he was quoted as saying by the interrogators.
Shaik fired two rounds on the arms of Vikram and fled on a bike wearing helmet. “That is why Vikram repeatedly said that a helmet wearing assailant shot at him and hoped that we would be misled and keep looking out for that attacker,” a police officer said.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner M. Mahender Reddy is going to formally announce the arrest of the gang at a press conference in a short while. Sections of the law relating to the case are being altered. Vikram is still in the hospital.
