Telangana honour killing: girl's father offered ₹ 1 cr

Father offered Rs 1 crore to kill Pranay and gave Rs 15 lakh as an advance

The Nalgonda Police on Tuesday formally announced the arrest of seven accused in the brutal murder of Pranay Kumar in Miryalaguda town of Telangana.

Police paraded six of the seven accused before the media. Contract killer Subhash Sharma, a resident of Samastipur in Bihar, who hacked Pranay to death, is in transit and will be brought to Miryalaguda on Wednesday.

The murder took place on September 14 when main accused Maruthi Rao’s daughter Amrutha Varshini and her husband Pranay, who belongs to Scheduled Caste community, were coming out of a hospital after a prenatal checkup.

After committing the crime, Sharma went to Patna via Bengaluru. Rao offered Rs 1 crore to kill Pranay and gave Rs 15 lakh as an advance which was shared by Sharma and other accused Asgar Ali, Mohammad Abdul Bari and Abdul Karim, who is a local Congress leader.

Bari, who was acquitted in the murder case of former home minister of Gujarat Haren Pandya, acted as a mediator between Sharma and Rao. Rao’s brother Shravan and driver Shiva Gowda are also in police custody.

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Two failed attempts

Giving the details of events that led to the murder, Nalgonda Superintendent of Police A V Ranganath said that a plan to eliminate Pranay was hatched three months ago. “After Rao came to know about his daughter’s pregnancy and failed to convince her to abort the baby, he started looking for someone who could do the dirty job,” the SP said.

He said that Sharma acquainted with Bari in Rajahmundry jail. Sharma, Bari and Asgar tried to kill Pranay on August 14 when he accompanied Amrutha to a beauty parlour. However, they dropped the idea as Pranay's brother was with him.

Then in September, they planned to kidnap Pranay and kill him. However, the gang dropped the idea after Amrutha’s father told them about the couple's visit to the hospital. Rao asked the killers to search for an alibi.

Reacting to the revelations made by the police, Amrutha Varshini who watched the live coverage at her in-laws' place said she was shocked that her husband escaped two earlier attempts on his life. She sought stringent punishment to the accused including her father as she fears for the life of her yet to be born child.