New Delhi: Maruthi Rao, the primary accused in the murder of 24-year-old Pranay Perumalla, has been found dead at a room in Hyderabad’s Arya Vaishya Bhavan. Rao had reportedly organised Pranay’s murder because his daughter, Amrutha, had married him. Pranay was a Dalit while Amrutha is from the upper caste Vyshya community.“The identity has been established. We don’t know other details now, including why he came to Hyderabad. The body will most likely be moved to Osmania Hospital shortly,” Venu Gopal Reddy, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Saifabad told The News Minute on Rao’s body being discovered.The police reportedly suspect that it may have been a suicide.On September 14, 2018, the police believe Rao paid a contract killer Rs 1 crore for Pranay’s murder. He was killed in broad daylight while him, Amrutha and Pranay’s mother were leaving a hospital. Amrutha was pregnant at the time.In June last year, the police had filed a chargesheet naming Rao and seven others – Asghar Ali (his associate), Mohammad Abdul Bari, Subash Sharma (the hired assassin from Bihar), Sravan Kumar (his brother) and Samudrala Shiva (his driver).After Rao’s body was discovered, Amrutha told the media that she had not spoken to her father since Pranay’s murder. “I have not spoken to him or contacted him since Pranay’s death. We have no information at present. We are still doubtful about what exactly happened. We also heard the news of his death through the media only. We haven’t received any official information, so we can’t respond until then,” she said.
