Hyderabad, March 8 A Telangana businessman, accused of murdering his son-in-law in a case of honour killing, allegedly committed suicide here on Sunday.
T. Maruthi Rao was found dead under suspicious circumstances in a room at Arya Vysya Bhavan in Khairatabad. He had checked into the room on Saturday night and is suspected to have consumed poison.
The guest house staff noticed the man lying unconscious on Sunday morning and alerted the police.
Later, the body was shifted to government-run Osmania hospital for autopsy. investigation.
Rao, who belongs to an upper caste, had got his son-in-law Perumalla Pranay Kumar murdered by hired killers as he was against the marriage of his daughter with the Dalit.
The 24-year-old man was hacked to death by hired killer Subash Sharma in full public view when he along with his wife Amrutha and mother were coming out of a private hospital in Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district on September 14, 2018. Amrutha was then pregnant. The sensational murder was caught on CCTV camera.A
In June last year, the police had filed a charge sheet against Rao, and seven others. He had struck the deal to kill Pranay for Rs 1 crore. The accused include Asghar Ali who was acquitted of terror charges, his associate Mohammad Abdul Bari and Subash Sharma, the hired assassin from Bihar, Maruthi Rao's brother Sravan Kumar and his driver, Samudrala Shiva.
Amrutha and Pranay were childhood friends and they had married at Arya Samaj in Hyderabad in 2018 against the wishes of her parents.
After the murder of her husband, Amrutha vowed never to go back to his parents and continued to live with in-laws. In January last year, Amrutha delivered a baby boy.
Maruthi Rao, who was out on bail, again came under police scanner after body of an unidentified man was found in a shed belonging to him in Miryalaguda, Telangana, on February 29.
( With inputs from IANS )