Priyanka Reddy case: But for Road Transport Authority, vet would have lived

Hyderabad: Road Transport Authority (RTA) officials had a chance to impound the lorry used by the killers of Dr P. Priyanka Reddy. They did not. Had they done so, she might have woken to a new week this morning.

Prime accused Mohd Ali alias Mohd Arif was stopped by the Mahbubnagar RTA while carrying a load of iron and bricks from Gangavathi in Karnataka to Hyderabad on November 24. Arif did not have his driver’s licence and so the lorry was seized.

Arif contacted the lorry owner, Srinivas Reddy, who advised the driver to avoid the impounding by immobilising the vehicle.

Accordingly, Arif removed a motor cable from the lorry. With the lorry unable to start, the RTA officials left it and went away.

Arif then restarted the lorry and took it to a petrol pump at Bhootpur road in Mahbubnagar, where he parked. Then, Arif phoned Chennakeshavulu (another accused) who biked over and they had food.

A bit later, Naveen (also an accused) and Arif proceeded on the bike while Chennakeshavulu drive the lorry to Thondapally village. At about 9 pm, they parked on the side of the road and slept in the lorry cabin.

The next morning, the police told them to move the lorry so they drive and reached the Thondapally toll plaza on the service road near the Gachibowli outer ring road.

Shiva, the fourth accused, confessed that Chennakesavulu, Naveen and he sold some iron scrap to a scrap dealer near the Raikal toll plaza for about Rs 4,000, and with that they bought whiskey etc at around 5.30 pm on November 27.

They were drunk when they saw Dr Reddy at around 6 pm. That’s when they hatched their plan to rape and kill her. None of which would have happened if the RTA had impounded the lorry.