A senior IAS officer who was arrested by the police here on Tuesday for trying in vain to cover trail of a murder committed by his elder son,  alleged that police have implicated him in the murder case as he refused to pay  Rs 2 crore bribe demanded them.

Dharavat Venkateswara Rao, Joint secretary Agriculture Corporation of Telangana, was arrested for allegedly assisting his son Dharavat Venkata Sukruth in removing the body of their driver Bhakya Nagaraj from the terrace of a nearby apartment complex. Sukruth killed Nagaraj in an inebriated condition when the later tried to molest the second year law student on last Friday.

Speaking to reporters at a corporate hospital where police admitted him after he collapsed during interrogation, Rao said that when his son’s face was identified with the help of CC TV footage, he voluntarily took his son to Jubilee Hills police station and handed over him to the police.

“As a responsible officer I went to the police station. But the police refused to let me go for three days in the name of questioning,” Rao alleged. He said that he assured the police all his cooperation.

“They locked me in a room for three days. They demanded Rs 2 crore from me saying that an IAS officer could easily pay the amount. But I am sincere salaried officer living a simple life. I refused to pay that amount. Hence they implicated me in the case, where as I have nothing to do the case involving my son Sukruth,” he said. He however agreed that his son had an altercation with Nagaraj on that fateful day and pushed him, which might have injured Nagaraj, the driver.

He alleged that the police who ill-treated me for days finally admitted him into the hospital only hours after he collapsed due to exhaustion. “If this is the situation for an IAS officer, I can’t just imagine the plight of the common man in the state,” Rao said.

The West Zone DCP A Venkateswara Rao refuted the allegations and said that police have a watertight case against the son and father duo.
DH News Service