Kothagudem: Police arrest 23 youths accused in Manuguru murder case

Kothagudem police arrested 23 of 27 youths accused in the murder of Simhadri Shiva Kumar at Manuguru Netaji Ground on August 27. Police said a gang led by Jettipat Ramyakanth had planned the attack following a dispute involving the victim.

Kothagudem: Police arrested 23 of the 27 youths accused in the murder of a youth, Simhadri Shiva Kumar, at Manuguru Netaji Ground on August 27 in the district.

Special teams were engaged to arrest the remaining four accused, who were absconding. Based on a complaint by Shiva Kumar’s father Appa Rao, Manuguru police registered a case under Sections 189(2), 103(2), 109(1), 351(3) and 61(2) read with Section 190 of the BNS against the accused.

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The police found that two youths, Erla Lokesh of Manuguru and Sathish, who worked for Shiva Kumar, had a dispute. Shiva Kumar, who worked as an interior designer in Hyderabad, had intervened in the dispute to support Sathish and confronted Lokesh.

Lokesh took the matter to Jettipat Ramyakanth alias Jetty, who threatened Shiva Kumar over the phone multiple times, hatched a plan to attack and kill Shiva when he visited Manuguru, DSP Ravindra Reddy told the media on Monday.

The police further found that Ramyakanth had formed a gang named ‘MK-Manuguru Khandan’ some time ago and recruited several youths as members. They maintained a WhatsApp group, ‘Team MK’, and an Instagram account to communicate with one another.

Police inquiries established that the gang members frequently roamed together, consuming alcohol, indulging in reckless revelry and engaging in brawls. The police were continuing their investigation into other activities associated with the gang, the DSP said.

Based on a tip-off, the gang was arrested by police in the Regulagandi forest area on Monday. The accused Ramyakanth, Guguloth Ramesh, Chennaboyina Bharath, Kandula Dinesh and Ganiboyina Sathwik were involved in different cases in the past. The police clarified that, so far, no evidence had been found linking the arrested accused to ganja consumption, sale or trade.

However, there were apprehensions among the locals that most of the gang members were addicted to ganja, and they questioned why the police had not curtailed the gang that was operating on such a large scale in a small town like Manuguru. It was alleged that some of the gang members were children of Congress leaders.