Moneylender murder case resolved as Proddatur police arrest six

Six persons were arrested in the sensational case of abduction and murder of a moneylender Venugopal Reddy, which rocked Proddatur town of Kadapa district last week. The Police department was quick to nab the six persons accused in the crime by making extensive use of technological tools.

Venugopal Reddy, a resident of Bollavaram area in Proddatur town, had regular tiffs with his clients whenever they defaulted on repayment. He was abducted by some miscreants on September 19 afternoon while returning home.

When his wife Prameela Devi found his two-wheeler abandoned on the road and chilli powder sprinkled all over, she grew suspicious and complained to the police, who registered a missing case and later converted it into a case of abduction. Superintendent of Police (SP) Shelke Nachiketh Vishwanath directed the Deputy Superintendent (Proddatur) to urgently form special teams to catch the culprits and rescue Venugopal Reddy.

The victim’s dead body was however recovered from the nearby Kundu river, following which it was again converted into a murder case.

As Reddy’s wife expressed suspicion over the likely role of a builder V. Lakshmi Reddy (53) and a mechanic Y. Venkatasubba Reddy (55), the teams gathered information via Google Takeout details, CCTV footages and toll plaza registers to finally zero in on the suspected duo.

Along with them, the police arrested four more persons — B. Nagesh (26), L. Ajay Kumar (18), C. Pranay Kumar (20) and K. Sivaprasad (22) — all of them hailing from Telangana.

Presenting the accused before the media on Wednesday, Mr. Nachiketh Vishwanath explained that the first two accused held a grudge against the moneylender for getting their properties attached after failing to repay the money owed to the victim.

There was also a previous enmity between them, which led to a physical assault on the moneylender in 2016, as per a case registered in Proddatur police station.