Unidentified persons fired two rounds at Congress leader and former Minsiter M. Mukesh Goud’s son M. Vikram Goud inside the latter’s house in Banjara Hills here in the early hours of Friday, the police said.
Mr. Vikram suffered two bullet wounds — one in his right upper arm and the other in his left arm. The bullet that hit his right arm exited. The round that pierced his left arm got embedded in his body.
“He is out of danger and recuperating,” doctors treating him at a corporate hospital in Jubilee Hills said.
Vikram's wife Shipali told the police that her husband and she had planned to offer prayers at a dargah in the city in the early hours of Friday. “We were getting ready to go out. I was on first floor when gun shots were heard around 3 a.m. I rushed downstairs, only to see my husband lying in a pool of blood on the sofa,” she was quoted as saying by the police.
Ms. Shipali maintained that she shifted him to a corporate hospital with the help of their watchman and the car driver. Hospital video footage showed that they arrived there by 3.30 a.m.
The Banjara Hills police registered a case under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of Indian Penal Code. As was the case with most of the recent sensational cases they had busted, they hoped to get crucial clues in the form of video footage of surveillance cameras.
They realised, however, that there were no surveillance cameras outside Vikram's house. Yet, they secured video clips of cameras close-by but couldn't find movements of any suspects before or after the alleged attempt on his life was made. Hyderabad Police Commissioner M. Mahender Reddy visited the hospital and inquired about the attack.
Sources said the conflicting statements of Vikram’s wife, the watchman and the car driver about the attack made it enigmatic. The bullets used by the attackers were of 7.65 mm calibre.
Vikram’s father Mukesh Goud was among top Congress leaders of the city. He served as Minister in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh State in the cabinets of Y.S. Rajaekhara Reddy, K. Rosaiah and N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
With the support of his father, Vikram had been into active politics for the past several years. He contested as Congress nominee for corporator in the GHMC elections held last year. For some time now, he had been living separately with his wife and child in a duplex house near road no. 86 of Banjara Hills.