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

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

Complete timeline:

Marriage with “police protection” in 2018

According to Nalgonda Police, Pranay and Amrutha had been friends since school 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. Counseling sessions were held for the couple and their parents, involving the police and local leaders, in an effort to resolve any issues, according to a report by The Hindu.

Murder in 2018

In June 2018, 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 offenses 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)