Pranay murder case: Second accused sentenced to death; all you need to know about how murder was executed

Pranay murder case: The Nalgonda Court in Telangana has sentenced an accused to death in connection with a 2018 honour killing case. Subhash Sharma, the second accused, received the death penalty for the murder of Pranay, who belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.

Complete timeline:

Marriage with “police protection” in 2018

According to Nalgonda Police, Pranay and Amrutha had been friends since their school days and got married at the Arya Samaj in Hyderabad on January 30, 2018.

After their marriage, the couple returned to Miryalguda and sought police protection.

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They lived at Pranay’s home in Muthireddykunta, which was monitored by CCTV cameras. According to a report by The Hindu, the police and local leaders participated in counselling sessions for the couple and their parents to resolve any issues.

Murder in 2018

In June 2018, Amrutha's father, Maruthi Rao, devised a plan to murder Pranay after contacting two individuals acquitted in the 2003 killing of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya — the main accused, Mohammed Azghar Ali and his associate Mohammed Abdul Bari, both from Nalgonda.

The plot to kill Pranay was formed when Rao reached out to Bari via transporter Abdul Kareem. On July 10, 2018, an initial payment of ₹15 lakh was distributed among Ali, Bari, and Kareem, according to a report by The Hindu.

After multiple failed attempts, Pranay was brutally murdered on September 14, 2018. The police subsequently arrested Maruthi Rao and five others: the suspected contract killer Subash Kumar alias Sharma from Bihar, Azgar Ali, Md Abdul Bari, Abdul Kareem, Maruthi Rao's brother Sravan Kumar, and Samudrala Shiva, who was Maruthi Rao's driver, The Hindu reported.

In April 2019, the Telangana High Court granted conditional bail to Maruthi Rao and two others involved in the case. In June, the Nalgonda Police submitted a 1,600-page charge sheet outlining the charges against the accused. These charges included criminal conspiracy, murder, and other offences under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Nalgonda Superintendent of Police (SP) Sharat Chandra Pawar said on Tuesday that the chargesheet was filed in 2019, and a case was registered in 2018 under sections of the Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act, among others, as reported by ANI.

“Today, the court has given the judgment. The girl's father, who was A1, had committed suicide. A2, named Subhash Sharma, is the one who killed the victim. It was all recorded on video. A2 has got the death penalty. The other accused, A3 to A8, have got life convictions. A1 hired A2 to A5. A6 is the brother of the main accused. A7 and A8 are locals who drove the vehicle and did recky. The victim is Pranay,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)