Land dispute behind CA Chakrapani's murder

Hyderabad: City police have solved the mystery behind the killing of a Chartered Accountant (CA) and arrested six persons in connection with the
crime.

Police Commissioner A K Khan said that the CA had been eliminated following a land dispute. Khan said the CA V Chakrapani had been knocked down at Secunderabad on February 22 before being whisked away by the assailants in a car and silencing him by slitting his throat with surgical blades.

The arrested were identified as Thopudurthi Rajasekhar Reddy (native of Kadapa district), K Srinivas Goud, D Rajesh Goud, Patel Mahesh, K Shiva Kumar ' all four natives of Ranga Reddy district and Y Siddiramulu of Medak district.

The first accused was named as A-15 in the Jubilee Hills car bomb blast case but remained absconding for 10 years. He had secured anticipatory bail in 2009 and the trial was in progress, Khan said.

Police recovered one pistol, two surgical blades, two cars, one motor cycle, nine cell phones, some gold ornaments and Rs 79,000 in cash from the accused.

Explaining about the land dispute that led to the murder, Khan said Rajasekhar Reddy had paid an advance of Rs 11 crore for the purchase of a disputed property at Vijayawada.

The dispute had been going on between Shambu Prasad & Sons Private Limited and Chakrapani. Shambu Prasad & Sons Private Limited and Nageswara Rao Estates had been jointly holding a property located near Railway Station in Vijayawada admeasuring 4,800 square yards.

The group used to run a daily news paper 'Andhra Patrika'. The management had sold the unit to Chakrapani in 1990 as it had been running in losses.

Chakrapani led the business into profits due to which Shambu Prasad had filed two cases in the court with an intention to get back the unit as it had emerged out of losses.

While the cases had been pending, Shambu Prasad & Sons sold the property to Maganti Subba Rami Reddy and his associates in 1994 for which one Mastan Reddy had been general power of attorney (GPA) holder, Khan said.

Shambu Prasad won the cases in 2009 but Chakrapani had preferred an appeal in a higher court. Knowing very well about the dispute, Rajasekhar Reddy entered into an agreement with Mastan Reddy for the purchase of the property by paying the advance.

Later, he tried to settle the dispute with Chakrapani by offering Rs 3 crore, but the latter had allegedly demanded Rs 17 crore, Khan said. It was then Rajasekhar Reddy decided to eliminate Chakrapani since the deadline for getting the property registered was fast approaching.

He chose Srinivas Goud, who was into recovery of cars from the customers who failed to repay the loan to various banks. Rajasekhar offered Rs 15 lakh for killing Chakrapani and paid an advance of Rs 1 lakh.

Subsequently, Srinivas assembled the gang and executed the plan. On February 21, the gang knocked Chakrapani down with a Tata Sumo car while he was reaching for his car at Lions Club near Paradise in Secunderabad at 11.30 pm.

Then he was whisked away in another car posing as though they were helping him reach a hospital but slit his throat and then set fire on the body after dousing it with petrol near Kandi village.

Sangareddy police have registered a murder case. Since the victim went missing from Secunderabad, the case has been transferred to Ramgopalpet
police, Khan said.

Khan further said that the gang had tried to kidnap a film producer as Rajasekhar Reddy had not paid them full money as agreed earlier for killing Chakrapani.

A case has been registered in this connection and investigation has been launched.