VIJAYAWADA: Police probing the murder of NRI industrialist Chigurupati Jayaram, are suspecting the involvement of some of his family members in the crime. Jayaram was found murdered in his car near Ithavaram in Nandigama mandal two days ago. 

A police team went to Hyderabad on Friday and took Jayaram’s niece Pulavarthi Madhuri Chowdary alias Shika Chowdary into custody from her residence and shifted her to Nandigama on Saturday for questioning.

Jayaram (55), who was residing in Florida, US, used to visit Hyderabad once a month to look after his business. He owns a pharma company — Zenotech Laboratories —  in Hyderabad and a few other firms in Andhra Pradesh. He was the managing director of vernacular TV channel Express TV (now closed) and director of Coastal Bank.

During the probe, Nandigama police found that an unidentified person met Jayaram a day before the incident (Wednesday evening) and gave Rs 6 lakh to him in the hotel lobby. 

Relatives’ hand suspected, niece taken into custody

“With the help of CCTV footage in Daspalla Hotel and Panthangi Toll plaza, we are trying to identify whether the person who met him in the hotel and driving the car is the same or not. Meanwhile, family members of Jayaram said he would not travel long distances alone. After the meeting in Daspalla Hotel, he might have met someone and travelled to Vijayawada along with him. The accused executed the murder without leaving any traces. We are questioning Jayaram’s relatives,” said Krishna district Superintendent of Police Sarvashreshth Tripathi.

According to sources, Jayaram last spoke to Shika on Thursday after attending a meeting at Daspalla Hotel in Hyderabad. A few hours later, he was found murdered in his car near Ithavaram. It is learnt that they are property disputes among his family members.

Meanwhile, there are allegations that Shika and her alleged boyfriend Rakesh Chowdary demanded Jayaram to pay Rs 4.5 crore and they might have killed him when he failed to pay the money. “After verifying the call records, we came to know that Jayaram spoke to Shika.

We are suspecting that the person who met him in the hotel on Wednesday or the family members might have been involved in the murder. Only the people who knew Jayaram’s visit to Vijayawada, could commit the crime,” said police.

The SP said the assailants tried to portray the murder as an accident and placed liquor bottles in the car. “We are waiting for the family members of Jayaram to come to India. We are hoping that the information from them will help unravel the murder mystery,” the SP added.