Party activist among five held in murder of Medak Congress leader murder

Hyderabad: Five persons, including a local Congress worker, have been arrested by the Medak police for their alleged role in the murder of 29-year-old Congress leader Marelli Anil at Variguntam village on the Medak-Jogipet road recently. However, the assailant, who opened fire on the Congress leader, is still at large.

Land disputes with a fellow Congress worker, humiliation and threats to block a former ward member’s bid in the forthcoming sarpanch elections and financial disagreements with another person reportedly led S Ravinder Reddy, 57, a Congress activist-cum-builder, to hatch a conspiracy to eliminate Anil. Incidentally, Ravinder Reddy and Anil both belong to Paitara village.

At 8:07pm on July 14, Anil was ambushed while returning home in a Mercedes Benz car from Hyderabad. An assailant fired four rounds from close range, causing the victim's car to veer into the gate of a roadside power sub-station. Alerted by locals, Anil's family rushed him to the Medak govt hospital after initial treatment at a local private hospital. He was declared dead at 9pm.

By analysing phone call records and CCTV footage, police identified the accused. Operating without eyewitnesses, seven special teams, comprising two DSPs, five inspectors, and seven sub-inspectors arrested five accused, including prime conspirator Ravinder Reddy, 57, P Nagaraju, 43, owner of an automobile workshop in Medchal, his brother Nagabhushanam, 40, a driver, garage workers Shabuddin and Md Farid, all four from Rangampet, Shabuddin’s friend Chinna from Vijayawada, and van driver T Ashok from Tekmal in Medak, 23, Medak superintendent of police (SP) DV Srinivasa Rao said at a press conference on Monday.

Ravinder Reddy's wife, who died during the pandemic in 2021, had unsuccessfully contested the 2018 assembly elections from Narsapur constituency on a BSP ticket. Ravinder Reddy is now a local Congress worker in Narsapur constituency.

According to the SP, Ravinder Reddy, once a close friend of Anil, held a grudge after Anil stopped paying tenancy for his 12-acre leased farmland in Rangampet and allegedly spread rumours about his character. “Anil also took Reddy's another parcel of land on lease to set up a petrol pump and stopped payments. He was not letting Reddy sell his plots in Rangampet,” the SP stated. Nagaraju, a former ward member of Rangampet, was humiliated when Anil vowed to block his bid for the forthcoming sarpanch election and also scuttled a land sale. Anil refused to return Rs 6 lakh he had borrowed from Nagabhushanam during the pandemic. “The trio felt Anil was hurting them financially and also damaging their reputation. They plotted the murder as a final solution,” the SP added.

Police revealed that Nagaraju had arranged the murder weapon through Farid. On June 27, Farid flew to Patna and then travelled to Nawabganj, where he purchased a .32 pistol and 10 rounds from weapons supplier Sachin Kumar. He returned by train and hid the gun at Nagaraju's Medchal garage.

On July 14, the accused tailed Anil in two cars, a Maruti 800 and a Swift Dzire, from Gummadidala. At Variguntam village, Nagabhushanam overtook Anil's Benz in the Maruti 800 and blocked his path. Shabuddin exited the Dzire car tailing the Benz and opened fire at Anil at close range.

Initially, the family members thought Anil was injured in a road accident, but doctors, who had examined Anil, noticed bullet injuries and alerted the local police. “Immediately our team went to the scene of offence and recovered four bullet casings,” Medak SP DV Srinivasa Rao stated. Following a complaint from Anil's family, a case was registered under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Arms Act at the Kulcharam police station.

The pistol, four spent shells, the vehicles used by the accused, and five mobile phones were recovered. Search continues for Shabuddin, Chinna, and the weapon supplier from Bihar.