A love affair and murder that shook Telangana

HYDERABAD: The video was shot beautifully. Pranay Kumar and Amrutha Varshini looked like movie stars. They were in love and the camera seemed to celebrate that. Resplendent and happy, as the young couple walked around Hidden Castle near Siddipet, about 80 km from Hyderabad, it felt like they were in Scotland with a Telugu film crew capturing their smile and stolen kisses.
Amruta posted it on Facebook and it was shared by hundreds almost immediately and liked by thousands.Already angry that his daughter, an upper caste, had dared to broadcast her affection for a Dalit man, T Maruti Rao was furious. He wondered aloud with his friends if a video that showed Pranay being killed would grab more attention.
On September 14, a contract killer attacked Pranay, just 23, outside a hospital where Amrutha, two years younger and now pregnant after her marriage at an Arya Samaj mandir in Hyderabad in January this year, had come to consult a doctor. This video went viral too. But shocked at the brutality of a father and the pain of a daughter whose only fault was that she believed caste should not stand in the way of love, Nalgonda erupted in rage.

Friends and family protested and Amrutha, mourning and beside herself with grief, vowed to get justice for her beloved. Politicians soon put pressure and police got into action. The murderous plot that then unraveled stunned not just Telangana but the entire country.
Rao, who had earlier offered Pranay Rs 3 crore to let Amrutha go, later tried to get her to abort the child. When that, too, failed, he started looking for a way to break the couple. The only option was to kill one of them. He chose the son-in-law.
The real estate developer first allegedly got in touch with Abdul Kareem, the Miryalaguda (in Nalgonda district) town Congress president, asking about an assassin who could be hired for the job. Karim allegedly gave Rao the name of Asghar Ali and Abdul Bari, who were held and later acquitted in the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya in Ahmedabad way back in 2003. The duo, both with criminal records, subcontracted a hit man called Subash Sharma in Bihar.
The gang initially demanded Rs 2.5 crore to execute the murder. But the deal was struck for Rs 1 crore. An advance of Rs 15 lakh was given out. Nalgonda police superintendent AV Ranganath said, “The money was handed over by Kareem to Bari in Hyderabad. Bari took Rs 8 lakh, Asghar received Rs 6 lakh and Kareem the remaining Rs 1 lakh.”
On Tuesday, Sharma was arrested from Samastipur and brought to Nalgonda for interrogation. In the meantime, cops had nabbed Rao, Ali, Bari, Kareem, Rao’s brother T Shravan and driver Samudrala Shiva.
Pranay and Amrutha had been friends since their school days in Miryalaguda. Both joined an engineering course in Hyderabad later, albeit in different colleges, and dropped out after their romance made it impossible for them to continue with their education.
Her weeping face on the front page of ever local daily in Hyderabad and Telangana, there are calls now from certain groups for Amrutha to contest elections. But she says she is too young. She will fight for justice. She has begun a Facebook page seeking support and vows to work all her life to break down the walls of prejudice and bias in the name of caste.
“There is a baby growing inside me now,” Amrutha said. “I will ensure that my child will take up my battle and campaign for a country where people have the right to fall in love with anyone they want. What kind of a future are people like my father giving them.”
But there are other pressing matters also, like the continued threat to herself and her in-laws. A day after the Nalgonda district police arrested the seven people in the honour killing, P Bala Swamy, father of Pranay, said Amrutha could still be kidnapped and taken away from them. The LIC employee said they need protection. “These are powerful people and caste is a powerful trigger,” he said.