A day after a watchman succumbed to burn injuries following a property dispute in Hyderabad’s Bowenpally, the police have arrested four people involved in the incident. The 48-year-old victim, Y Sharanappa, breathed his last in the Gandhi Hospital on Friday. Two of the accused, who are associated with the ruling TRS party, are also charged for sexually assaulting the watchman’s wife.
The police on Saturday arrested Thumkunta Madhava Reddy, Samala Madhava Reddy, Jakkula Surender Reddy and their driver Dami Naresh Singh. According to reports, Surender Reddy is a relative of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) and the four are said to have close connections with the TRS party.
On December 5, T Madhava Reddy, who is also a businessman, along with his associates, went to the disputed property at Bowenpally and demolished the compound wall. Sharanappa, who was guarding the property, and his wife intervened and tried to stop the accused from encroaching the land. Sharanappa was assaulted by the group and his wife allegedly molested, after which the couple filed a complaint with the police.
On December 7, miffed that the couple filed a complaint against them, the four accused went to the property with a can of petrol and set the watchman ablaze.
Though the police denied they were under pressure to not make the arrests when the couple filed the complaint, locals allege that TRS leaders were pressurising the cops to not arrest the accused.
“If the police have taken action on the first complaint, Sharanappa would have been still alive. He had migrated to Hyderabad from Karnataka 15 years ago,” Sharanappa’s employer told the Times of India.
According to reports, the accused were absconding and travelling to different states to avoid arrest. “They stayed in Maharashtra for a while, and then made a call to a known number. They were finally nabbed from near the Secunderabad railway police station,” the police told media on Saturday.
The four have been charged under sections 452 (house trespass), 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and sent to judicial remand.