Hyderabad police have busted young Congress Leader Vikram Goud’s ingenious cinematic plot to stage his own murder.
Vikram Goud staged his own shooting to get sympathy from voters, and also to get off the hook of financiers, it was revealed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner, M Mahender Reddy, on Wednesday.
Vikram was planning to contest as an MLA in the upcoming general elections.
Police said that Vikram invested a lot of money in mining in Odisha and in some other ventures. His partners failed to return the money.
In a bid to recover his investments, and also to escape from the clutches of his financiers who were hounding him, Vikram staged the crime, police said.
Vikram orchestrated the crime with the help of Govind Reddy, an aspiring actor.
About two years ago, Govind met Vikram, through one of his employees. Govind approached Vikram for acting opportunities, and the Congress leader who also produced films, asked him to stay in touch.
“Four months earlier, Vikram called Govind and detailed his plan to contest in elections and explained how he wanted to gain popularity through sympathy. Vikram asked him to procure a gun and stage the event, in such a way that police would assume the murder attempt was carried out by his political rivals. Govind agreed, for which he was paid Rs 5 lakh,” Mahender Reddy detailed.
As Govind was not confident of carrying out the task, he approached one of his friends Nanda, who demanded a remuneration of Rs 50 lakh for doing this. Nanda then approached Shaik Ahmed from Indore through his friend Babujan.
Subsequently, Shaik Ahmed bought a weapon for Rs 30,000 from Raees, another accused who has been arrested.
On July 23, Shaik Ahmed brought a two-wheeler from Govind in Pulivendula and later he, along with another accused Ghouse, erased the engine and chassis number of the vehicle, to leave no clues.
Four days later, on the day of the incident, Nanda, Shaik Ahmed and Raees Khan assembled near the Film Nagar residence of Vikram. As per plan, the trio opened fire on Vikram and then fled on their bike.
As decided earlier and on the instructions of Vikram, the weapon used for the shooting was thrown into a water body in Hakeempet, The Times of India reported.
“We have recovered the weapon and collected forensic evidences”, the Commissioner said.
Vikram, the prime accused in the case, will be arrested following his discharge from hospital.
Police have arrested five people so far. The accused are Nanda Kumar, Shaik Ahmed, Raees Khan, Kokanti Babujan and A Govind Reddy.
Two others, Venkata Ramana alias Chinna and Ghouse, are absconding, police informed.