Two arrested in BJP leader murder conspiracy case

Hyderabad: Mahbubnagar police arrested two individuals in connection with a conspiracy to murder BJP leader Konda Prashanth Reddy. On April 20, Prashanth, who contested from the Deverakadra constituency, lodged a complaint alleging a plot to kill him.Following an investigation, Deverakadra police arrested K Roop Singh Nayak, 24, a tractor driver from Thimmasanipalli, and Arunachalam Naveen Kumar, 39, a MeeSeva Centre operator from Deverakadra. A third suspect, Srikanth from Karnataka, is absconding.According to Mahbubnagar district superintendent of police D Janaki, Naveen's father, Arunachalam Raju, was murdered in 2015 while on a morning walk. Prashanth is the main accused in that case, which is still under trial. "Naveen held a longstanding grudge over his father's death," the SP said.Roop Singh also had a grievance against Prashanth, alleging he never received payment for bricks his family supplied. When he approached Prashanth about it, he was allegedly threatened.Earlier this year, Roop Singh and Srikanth learned of Prashanth's involvement in Naveen's father's murder. In Feb, they approached Naveen and allegedly offered to eliminate Prashanth for a ₹5 lakh supari.As part of the conspiracy, Roop Singh and Srikanth had reportedly been tracking Prashanth's movements for two months. The BJP leader was alerted by a co-accused in the 2015 case who knew Roop Singh and informed him of the plot. Prashanth submitted an audio recording of a conversation between Roop Singh and the co-accused discussing the plan.Police are continuing efforts to apprehend the absconding suspect, Srikanth.