HYDERABAD: Telangana honour killing: Killers demanded Rs 2.5 crore, deal was struck for Rs 1 crore Miryalaguda police on Tuesday arrested seven people, including two men acquitted in the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya, for the recent honour killing of a Dalit Christian man, Perumalla Pranay. Subash Sharma, the hired assassin, who was captured on CCTV killing Pranay with a machete, was arrested in Bihar and will be brought to Hyderabad on prison transit warrant. T Maruthi Rao, prime accused in the honour killing case and father of the girl, tried to create an alibi for himself similar to what the protagonist did in the Telugu movie, Drusyham. The character played by actor Venkatesh attempted to establish an alibi to take revenge against the person who had meted out injustice to his daughter. Nalgonda superintendent of police AV Ranganath said, “The accused, Maruthi Rao, tried to create an alibi and pose as an innocent man, like in the movie Drushyam . On September 14, the day of the murder, two hours before the crime was committed, he went to the joint collector’s office in Nalgonda and met officials to establish that he was not present at the scene of the offence. On the same day, while he was going to Nalgonda, he saw the district deputy SP and RDO and got down from his vehicle and spoke to them regarding Ganesh festival.”“Despite all the efforts he made to create an alibi, we have collected technical and other evidence to prove his role in the murder,” the SP said.Police said Maruthi Rao did not share the conspiracy of the murder with his wife. “Maruthi Rao used his wife to get information regarding the movement of Pranay and Amrutha Varshini . After Amrutha became pregnant, her mother used to speak to her regularly. On September 13, on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi, Amrutha spoke to her mother and told her that they were going to the hospital on Saturday, September 14, for a medical check-up. Unaware of the consequences, she informed Maruthi Rao that they were going to the hospital. Maruthi Rao immediately passed on the information to Abdul Bari, and Bari passed it on to Asghar Ali, who informed Subash,” said Ranganath.“Maruthi Rao made Amrutha believe that everything was okay and executed the killing. Maruthi Rao told us that he started his life as a ration dealer and worked hard, including carrying of gunny bags, and had reached this level. Though initially Maruti Rao had worked hard, later, he resorted to several cases of cheating and land settlements,” said Ranganath.Nalgonda police has informed the Nalgonda collector to dig out land dealings done by Maruthi Rao and take action regarding the same.Ranganath said, “It is true that some officials connived with him. There is no involvement of Nayeem gang in this.”

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