The police said M Prashanth, the mastermind, tried to claim ownership of his friend Prasad's property. The accused killed all six within 20 days.
Ashok Das was brutally beaten to death by a group of 10 people (Representational image)
Five people — including two teenagers and a minor — were arrested on Tuesday, 19 December from Nizamabad for murdering six members of a family within 20 days, said the police.
The cops added that the arrested also dumped the bodies of their victims at various locations in the state, having killed them to acquire their property.
The main accused has been identified as Medidha Prashanth (25), a native of the Makloor village in Nizamabad.
He, along with his friends Gugulothu Vamshi (19) and Banothu Vishnu (19), his brother, who is a minor, and his mother Medidha Vaddamma were apprehended on Tuesday.
The Kamareddy district police said they found the burnt body of an unidentified woman on 14 December near the Padmajiwada village in Sadasivanagar.
Following examinations, the cops ascertained the woman to be around 20-25 years of age. They added that she had been killed before being doused with oil and burnt.
With that lead, as the police started to investigate further, they successfully established a connection between the murder case and related killings.
The cops concluded that Prashanth, who was a friend of the deceased Pune Prasad (36), had orchestrated a plan to murder him as well as his family to usurp his property.
The five accused initially killed Prasad. Later, they killed his wife Pune Sanvika (29), their two eight-year-old children Pune Chaithrik and Pune Chaitrika, and Prasad’s sisters Swapna (26), and Sravani (23).
Kamareddy Superintendent of Police (SP) Sindhu Sharma said Prasad had faced accusations in a 2018 suicide abetment case involving a woman.
Prasad, who was originally from Makloor, borrowed ₹1.5 lakh from Prashanth and later worked in Gulf countries.
Upon returning in 2022, he experienced social ostracism in Makloor due to his alleged role in the woman’s suicide. As a result, he relocated with his family to the Palavancha village in the Kamareddy district.
Sindhu Sharma, Kamareddy Superintendent of Police addressing the press conference of mass murders in Kamareddy. (Supplied)
“In an attempt to sell or transfer the house and land owned by Prasad, he reached out to Prashanth, proposing a mortgage arrangement where he could take a loan against the property’s value,” said Sharma.
“Prashanth agreed, suggesting that if the land were registered in his name, he would facilitate the loan. Subsequently, in May, Prasad officially transferred the ownership of the land and house to Prashant, with an estimated market value of ₹20-25 lakh,” added the SP.
However, as time passed, Prashanth consistently avoided fulfilling his commitment to provide the loan.
When Prasad confronted Prashanth, the latter tried to brush him off, the police said. He then hatched a plan to eliminate Prasad and his family, so he could claim ownership of the property and assets without arousing suspicion.
According to the police, Prashanth and his associates wanted to kill Prasad after the Telangana Assembly elections (which took place on 30 November).
But as Prasad started calling him daily, he changed the timeline of the plan, said the police, adding that he also promised his associates Vamshi and Vishnu ₹60,000 after the murders.
On 29 November, Prasad was allegedly lured into the forest by Prashanth and the other three accused, where he was intoxicated and subsequently killed.
They then buried Prasad’s body in the forest, and to divert suspicion, Prashanth informed Prasad’s family that he was hiding in Nizamabad due to legal issues related to the suicide abetment case, said the police.
The family, trusting Prashanth’s explanation, refrained from reporting Prasad going missing to the police.
On 1 December, Prashanth and two associates rented a car and convinced Prasad’s wife Sanvika and his sister Sravani to travel to Nizamabad under the ruse of meeting Prasad.
They allegedly strangled Sanvika with a rope and threw her off the Basara Bridge. Subsequently, Sravani was taken to Chegunta in Medak district, where she was purportedly strangled and set on fire.
On 4 December, Prashanth and his younger brother (a minor) conned the remaining family members into thinking that Prasad and Sanvika wished to see their children.
The children were allegedly killed, and their bodies were disposed of near a bridge in Mendora village in Nizamabad.
The police said Prashanth also told his mother Vaddamma of the proceedings and asked for her help, to which she agreed.
As the last surviving family members, Prasad’s mother Susheela and his other sister Swapna were taken to a lodge near Nizamabad Railway Station by Prashanth, who feared arousing suspicion.
Swapna was allegedly strangled to death by the accused in Sadashiva Nagar on 13 December. Anticipating danger when none of the family members returned, Susheela managed to escape from the lodge.
The police, already investigating Swapna’s case, utilised technical evidence and CCTV footage to apprehend Prashanth, Vamsi, Vishnu, and the minor boy.
During the investigation, documents revealing the transfer of the land to Prashanth’s name were recovered.
As of now, the police have recovered the bodies of Swapna, Shravani, and the two children, while the whereabouts of Prasad and his wife remain unknown. On December 19, the cell phones of the murdered family members were seized from the accused.
A total of four cases have been registered by Telangana police. Two of them are at the Mendora Police Station in the Nizamabad district, and one each at the Sadasivanagar Police Station in Kamareddy and Chegunta Police Station in Medak.
All four cases have been registered under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (disappearance of evidence).
The cops recovered a car, a bike, land documents, ₹30,000 cash, five mobile phones, two petrol bottles, two spades, and a rod from the accused.
SP Sindhu Sharma told South First late on Tuesday that two bodies — those of Prasad and his wife Sanvika — were yet to be recovered.
“As per the confession of the accused Prashanth, they committed a total of six murders. After the first murder of Prasad on 29 December, they said they buried the body near Makloor. As the family trusted them, no case of Prasad going missing was registered. So, we must first get a case registered and then petition the local tahsildar for the excavation process of Prasad’s body,” she said.
As for Sanvika’s body, she said the accused confessed to strangulating her before pushing her off the Basara bridge.
“The location is in the Nirmal district. We have to go through the unidentified bodies and identify which one is hers. We have to follow the same process here as well and get a case registered before we move a petition for further proceedings,” said Sharma.
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