Telangana lawyer couple murder: Father sees political motive, cops say local issues led to crime

PEDDAPALLI: Even as Gattu Kishan Rao, father of slain High Court lawyer Vaman Rao is insisting that the twin murders of his son and daughter-in-law Nagamani were politically motivated, the police continue to assert that it was village-level disputes the advocate couple had with the accused which had led to their gory end.

The police, after arresting the fifth accused in the case, Udari Lakshman alias Latchaiah on Friday, said that he was the one who had tipped off the main accused in the case on the movement of the lawyer couple as soon as they left the court premises on February 17.  

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The police, in a lengthy statement, said that the motive for the murder was that the lawyer couple was repeatedly creating problems for the accused which drove them to take a decision to eliminate them. The police said that on the day of the murder, Accused No 1 Kunta Srinivas took another accused — Akkapaka Kumar and Latchaiah, who was arrested on Friday, in his car and as they were approaching Manthani Chowrastha, they saw the lawyer couple going towards the court in their black car. Following their movements, they intercepted the lawyer’s cat at Kalvacherla and hacked them to death.