SC hands Telangana lawyer couple murder to CBI, months after they accused police of harassment

Ordering a deeper probe into the 2021 killing of Gattu Vaman Rao and P.V. Nagamani, the Supreme Court noted the couple had been attacked months after filing PILs and alleging police intimidation — a link their family says can’t be ignored.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday transferred the probe into the 2021 killing of a lawyer couple in Telangana's Peddapalli district to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh said the matter requires further investigation.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by Gattu Kishan Rao seeking a CBI inquiry into the murder of his son Gattu Vaman Rao and daughter-in-law P V Nagamani.

The couple, both practising lawyers in the high court, were killed when two assailants intercepted their car and attacked them using knives and other weapons near a village in Ramagiri Mandal.

Gattu Vaman and Nagamani had moved the high court in September 2020 complaining that police were harassing and threatening them after they wrote a letter (which was taken up as PIL) to the court over the alleged custodial death of a man in the Manthani police station.

The couple had also filed PILs on various public issues in different courts, including the high court.

Police earlier said two persons in another car waylaid the lawyer couple’s vehicle and brutally attacked them before fleeing.