Hyderabad, Sep 24 (IANS) A convict in the sensational “honour killing” of Dalit youth Perumulla Pranay Kumar died on Thursday in Cherlapally Jail, where he was serving life imprisonment.
Abdul Bari (50) suffered cardiac arrest around 3 p.m. and was rushed by jail staff to Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad, where he succumbed while undergoing treatment.
A resident of Nalgonda, Bari was accused number four in Pranay’s murder case and had also been named as one of the accused in the murder of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya.
Pranay, 24, was hacked to death with a machete by a hired killer in full public view on September 14, 2018, when he, along with his pregnant wife Amrutha and mother Premalatha, was leaving a private hospital in Miryalaguda town of Nalgonda district. The murder, caught on CCTV, drew national attention.
Pranay had married Amrutha, who belonged to an upper caste, against the wishes of her father Maruthi Rao, a businessman. The childhood friends were married on January 30, 2018, at an Arya Samaj temple in Hyderabad.
Maruthi Rao, accused number one in the case, committed suicide on March 7, 2020, while on bail. He was accused of orchestrating the murder by reportedly paying Rs 1 crore to contract killer Subhash Kumar Sharma through another accused.
After a six-year-long trial, the SC/ST Special Court in Nalgonda sentenced Sharma, a native of Bihar, to death. Other convicts: Asghar Ali, Abdul Bari, Abdul Karim, Maruthi Rao’s brother Shravan Kumar, auto driver Nizam, and car driver Shiva were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Police investigations revealed that Maruthi Rao hatched the plan in June 2018, contacting Asghar Ali and Abdul Bari, both acquitted earlier in the Haren Pandya case, through transporter Abdul Kareem. On July 10, 2018, they shared an advance of Rs 15 lakh among Ali, Bari, and Kareem.
In August 2018, Sharma, Ali, and Bari arrived in Miryalaguda. After failed attempts, Pranay was hacked to death on September 14, 2018.
Amrutha, who vowed never to return to her parents’ house, delivered a baby boy in 2019 while continuing her fight for justice.
–IANS
ms/dan
