Telangana: Cops arrest 'mediator' in Rs 1 crore honour killing plot

HYDERABAD: Mohammed Abdul Bari, the man who was acquitted in the murder case of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya, was arrested on Monday in connection with the horrific honour killing of a dalit youth in Nalgonda.
According to the police, Bari acted as a mediator between the hired assassin from Bihar and Amrutha Varshini's father, T Maruthi Rao, to eliminate Pranay Perumalla.A local Congress leader, Mohammed Kareem, was also taken into custody.
Senior Telangana police officials confirmed to TOI that Rao contacted Bari through Kareem and the supari amount was fixed at Rs 1 crore. Maruthi Rao paid an initial amount of Rs 50 lakh to the killer.
Pranay was hacked to death on September 14 in Miryalaguda town for marrying Amrutha, who hails from an upper caste family.
"Bari is an aide of ISI suspect Asghar Ali of Nalgonda, who is facing trial in the murder of Haren Pandya. Bari was arrested along with Asghar Ali in April 2003 by Central Bureau of Investigation and police of united Andhra Pradesh near Medchal. A case was booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA)," a senior police official said.
They were charged with attacking Haren Pandya to avenge the 2002 Gujarat riots. In June 2007, Bari was convicted with eight others by an anti-terror court in Gujarat.
“In 2010, the city sessions court in Ahmedabad acquitted all the accused and when the matter was taken to Gujarat high court, it upheld their acquittal,” the police official added.
However, after acquittal in the Haren Pandya case, both Asghar and Bari were arrested by Central Crime Station sleuths of Hyderabad in connection with aiding the 1996 daring escape of terror suspect Mirza Faiyaz Baig from police custody.
In January 2013, the duo was again acquitted in the Baig case and Abdul Bari was set free. East Zone police said there is no case against him recently. Bari, a native of Nalgonda, has been living in Saleem Nagar in Malakpet.
A police official said, “There’s no involvement of former TRS MLA Veeresham in the murder of Pranay. Amrutha had made allegations, but there is no involvement. Kareem is a Congress member, but there’s no involvement of his party in the murder. Kareem has been a friend of Maruthi Rao and they were engaged in land settlements.”
Congress has decided to suspend Miryalaguda town president Mohammed Kareem. Former home minister K Jana Reddy, who visited Pranay’s house to pay tributes, said that Kareem would be suspended for conspiring the murder.