Woman, minor boy, 3 others held for murder in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The police has arrested five people, including a woman and a minor boy, for allegedly beating a 30-year-old man to death at Chikkadpally. The victim, Mohd Shafi, had entered a hut at Bapuji Nagar in Chilkalguda in an inebriated condition on February 3 midnight and was caught and murdered by the suspects, who mistook him for a sexual predator.  

Police said that Shafi wanted to go to his lover’s hut but had by mistake entered a neighbour’s hut as he was drunk.

The suspects were identified as Damodhara Annavaram, 56, a rag picker,  his wife Damodhara Bhavani, 33, his neighbours Md. Anwar Pasha, 30, a rag picker, Shaik Naseer, 31, and his 14-year-old son. The last three people are relatives of Shafi’s lover, cops said.  

Chilkalguda police said the suspects beat Shafi with bricks, an iron rod and tied him to a gate with a rope suffocating him to death.

“On Wednesday night, Shafi and his two friends got drunk at a bar in Parsigutta. After 10 pm, Shafi made one his friends Rajpal Singh drop him at Bapuji Nagar so that he could meet his lover. An inebriated Shafi walked into one of the huts thinking that it was the house of his lover. He also tried to make advances towards the woman he saw there. But it was Bhavani, who screamed and woke up her husband Anna-varam. Both of them caught hold of Shafi and alerted neighbours,” said Inspector V. Srinivasulu. The neighbours, Naseer and two others came to the place and tied shafi up. “The five beat him up till he died. When they realised he was not breathing they took his body and dumped it on the pavement a few kilometers away,” said a police official.

Next day morning Shafi’s wife Rashida Begum got information about the body and she filed a complaint with the police. Cops launched an investigation and arrested the suspects who were booked for murder and sent to judicial remand.