Hyderabad: The first metropolitan session’s court sentenced gangster Bhanu Kiran to life imprisonment on Tuesday. Bhanu Kiran was the prime accused in the sensational murder of Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddelacheruvvu Suri, faction leader from Rayalseema, Andhra Pradesh. Suri was accused of killing the late Telugu Desam MLA Paritala Ravi.
Another prime accused, Manmohan Singh Bhaduria, a close aide of Bhanu, was however released from the jail as he has already served seven years. On Tuesday he was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
The sentence came seven years after the murder of Suri in Sanath Nagar. Bhanu Kiran was convicted under Section 302 of the IPC and the Arms Act, His aide Manmohan, a native of Uttar Pradesh and owner of the 0.32 revolver that was used to kill Suri, was convicted for conspiracy under Sections 212, 201 of the IPC and sentenced to imprisonment of five plus five years, the terms to run concurrently.
Four other accused in the case, namely Sulam Subbaiah, Boya Venkata Hari Babu, Avula Venkata Ramana and K. Vamsidhar Reddy, were acquitted.
On Tuesday, Bhanu Kiran and Manmohan Reddy were brought to the criminal court, Nampally, hours ahead of time. The duo was given an eight-tier security cover. No one from Bhanu’s family or that of his victim Suri was present in the session’s court.
Before pronouncing the judgement in a packed courtroom, the session’s judge told Bhanu Kiran that all the evidence on cross-examination by the CID proved him guilty. Bhanu Kiran showed no emotion when he was sentenced. He had called it a false case. But he pleaded with the judge to consider that his aged mother was sick and solely dependent on him.
Bhanu Kiran’s counsel said that they will appeal before the High Court.
Bloody background
Maddelacheruvvu Suri met Bhanu Kiran when Suri was serving life imprisonment for the Jubilee Hills blast case. Bhanu became his close confidant and ran the show from the outside. However, after a while, Bhanu began to extort money, threaten people and carried out an independent land settlement in the name of Suri. On knowing this, Suri abused Bhanu and threatened to kill him. Bhanu, who felt threatened, planned the murder of Suri with Manmohan Singh.
On January 3, 2011, when Suri came out of jail on remission, Bhanu accompanied him to meet a lawyer with regard to the killing of Telugu Desam MLA Paritala Ravi. The hearing was underway in the Anathapur district court, and Suri was an accused in the case. The duo met the lawyer at Sai Satya Complex and then headed to Banjara hills to meet one Padma, a relative of Suri, in a borrowed Skoda car.
Suri was seated next to the driver Madan Mohan Reddy, and Bhanu Kiran was in the back seat. While passing Navodhaya colony, Sanath Nagar, two bullets were fired from a 0.32 revolver into the back of Suri’s head. Bhanu began to shout, “Attack, Attack!” and jumped out of the car.
Following the car on two bikes were the four who were acquitted on Tuesday — Sulam Subbaiah, Boya Venkata Hari Babu, Avula Venkata Ramana and K. Vamsidhar. Bhanu Kiran, wearing a helmet, jumped onto the bike between Subbaiah and Hari Babu and fled towards Kukatpally where he and Manmohan Singh were picked up by one Loknath Reddy, who wasn’t involved in the killing, in a Scorpio car.
While on the run, Bhanu Kiran received a call from the driver of the Skoda car, Madan Mohan Reddy. Bhanu Kiran told him not to call him. He then threw out two used bullet cartridges and the helmet at Pantancheru and the trio fled to Sholapur, then Pune, halted in Delhi, then moved to Gurgaon and finally rented a house in Madhya Pradesh.
A month later, in February 2011, Manmohan Singh returned to Hyderabad to collect some cash on the behest of Bhanu Kiran. Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested him. A year later, Bhanu was nabbed at a dhaba in Zaheerabad in Medak district.
The case went on for seven years. It was first investigated by the city’s Central Crime Station, which filed a charge-sheet. It was later handed over to the CID where two other supplementary charge sheets were filed. The seven year old case ended with the conviction and sentencing of Bhanu Kiran on Tuesday.
