Police use drone to track accused couple in Paderu

Visakhapatnam: The couple accused of burning to death an elderly man on Jan 23 was arrested by Paderu police on Friday. Police used a drone to track them down while they were hiding in a forest. The accused were identified as Vanthala Somanna (39), a farmer, and his wife Vanthala Devi (36), both natives of Chintalapalem tribal hamlet under Paderu police station limits in ASR district.The gruesome murder of 65-year-old farmer Korra Ramanna Dora was reported at Chintalapalem, around 40 km from Paderu town. Ramanna was burnt alive as he wanted back Rs 5,600 he had lent to the accused. After committing the heinous crime, the couple fled into the forest area to evade the police. Paderu police station inspector D Deenbandhu said the accused borrowed the amount from Ramanna around two years ago, but were reluctant to return the money, which triggered the dispute.On Jan 23, when Somanna and his wife were waiting near Ramanna's house to buy palm toddy, he and his son Chinnababu again raised the issue of returning the money. The enraged couple started abusing the father-son duo, and suddenly attacked them with sharp weapons. While an injured Chinnababu fled from the spot to save himself, the accused couple locked Ramanna in his hut and set it on fire."As the accused were hiding in a dense forest area after committing the crime, our teams used a drone to locate them. They also struggled to get food as police had surrounded the forest from all sides. They will be produced before the court soon," Deenabandhu said.