Sanjeevi and his wife Mala were supposed to visit their son-in-law’s house in Chittoor on July 29. The murder came to light when their granddaughter Nochi could not reach Sanjeevi on phone till July 30 and asked her granduncle to check. Police initially searched in Chittoor thinking they could have been kidnapped while going to son-in-law’s house.

The main accused, Sanjeevi’s nephew Ranjith Kumar, took the couple in his car to Prasanna Venkateswara temple in Appalayaguntaand. But he had sent his friends, Robert alias Ranjith Kumar and Vimal Raj, in another car, asking them to wait at different spots. He picked them up on the way; Robert sat in the middle row behind Sanjeevi, while Vimal sat in the last row behind Mala.

“After darshan, they all returned in the same car. After travelling for about 10 km, Ranjith stopped the car on the pretext of attending to nature’s call. Then Robert Vimal Raj and Robert strangled the couple from behind using break cables used in bikes,” said inspector Ramesh, who cracked the case in two days.

After disposing of the bodies in a predetermined place, the accused went to Sanjeevi’s house with the keys and his phone. They took cash and jewels from there and then Vimal was sent to leave the phone amid bushes in Chittoor without switching it off to confuse the police, said the inspector.

“Ranjith Kumar had bought the cables in his name and we have seized the receipts,” Ramesh added.

Vimal Raj used to deliver milk sweets at Ranjith Kumar’s shop while Robert is a driver. “Ranjith Kumar had borrowed Rs 50 lakh from Sanjeevi’s son-in-law and decided to murder Sanjeevi as he kept reminding him to return the money,” said the inspector.

The police retrieved 42 sovereigns and Rs 7 lakh from them, but the money that Ranjith Kumar had given to money lenders is yet to be recovered.