DSP, Telugu daily MD got rowdy killed to escape another murder     

VISAKHAPATNAM: The probe into the murder of city-based rowdy-sheeter Gedela Raju has exposed the involvement of a DSP-rank officer and the editor and MD of a Telugu daily in the crime, the city police said on Saturday. D Ravi Babu, working as a DSP in the vigilance wing of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), was named the prime accused in the murder of Gedela Raju whose completely charred body was found at Sabbavaram on October 6.

Ravi Babu plotted the murder of Raju allegedly to escape from the murder of a woman with whom he had an extra-marital affair. At the behest of the cop, Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Raju, editor and MD of Telugu daily Kshetriya Bheri,  hired a nine-member gang of criminals to kill Raju, Gajuwaka Police told mediapersons. 

The police have arrested nine of the 12 accused in the case: Gummadi Ravi (55), Suvvada Mahesh (32), Y Srinivasa Rao (30), A Gopi (30), M Vijay Kumar alias Billa (25), B Murali (25), Anand Kumar Kannam (49), P Thrinadh (25) and B Kanakaraju (39), all residents of the city.  

Among them, Srinivasa Rao, Gopi and Kanakaraju are auto-rickshaw drivers, while Suvvada Mahesh is wanted in eight crimes including three murders and M Vijay Kumar is accused in eight robbery cases. 
The main accused DSP Ravi Babu, Srinivasa Raju and his driver Kesava are still on the run. 

Police started the investigation after confirming the identity of the charred body of Gedela Raju, suspecting that gang rivalry could have been led to the murder of the rowdy-sheeter who was involved in several offences in the past. Police cracked the first clue when they nabbed a drunk motorist driving the vehicle of Gedela Raju and interrogation confirmed that Raju was murdered by a group of men owing to some dispute and the police nabbed eight people involved in the murder from an apartment at Adarsh Nagar in the city, Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) D Nagendra Kumar told the media here. 

“The nabbed accused confessed that DSP Ravi Babu and Srinivas Raju had hired the nine-member gang for `5 lakh to eliminate Gedela Raju. They also told us that the DSP had an extra-marital affair with Padmalatha, daughter of a former MLA of Payakaraopeta. With the affair coming to light, the DSP had given a supari of `1 crore to Gedela Raju to kill Padmalatha, who was found dead in September last year. The DSP paid `50 lakh to Raju as an advance,” the JCP said. 

The problem began after Raju started pestering the DSP for the remaining `50 lakh. 
He reportedly started blackmailing the police officer claiming that he had several recordings of their phone conversations which he, if not paid the rest amount, would make them public. Scared of the consequences, Ravi Babu then sketched plan to eliminate Raju.“Though the accused have confessed that Padmalatha’s death was a murder, we are yet to ascertain it. More details will come to light only after Ravi Babu is nabbed. Our teams are searching for him,” said Nagendra Kumar.

Police said that Srinivasa Raju, the Kshetriya Bheri editor,  was a close friend of Ravi Babu. With a plan of eliminating Gedela Raju, Srinivasa Raju hired the nine-member gang led by Suvvada Mahesh. 
On October 6, Srinivasa Raju called Gedela Raju to his office to settle the issue. After the rowdy-sheeter came to the office,  the gang who were already present there attacked him with iron rods and knives behind the closed doors. 

 Later, they dumped the body at an isolated place at Sabbavaram and set it fire before dousing it with petrol, the police said, while producing the nine accused before the media.    
Asked about the possible involvement of political forces in the case to protect Ravi Babu, the JCP did not rule it out. “The case will be probed from all possible angles,” the JCP said.