WhatsApp murder: Telangana HC grants bail to accused person

Justice Juvvadi Sridevi dealt with a criminal petition filed seeking regular bail for the offences under Sections 365, 342 and 302 r/w. 34 of IPC.

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has granted bail to Vallepudasu Shekar, who is arrayed as A6 in an infamous WhatsApp group Double murder case at Kadthal Rangareddy district. Justice Juvvadi Sridevi dealt with a criminal petition filed seeking regular bail for the offences under Sections 365, 342 and 302 r/w. 34 of IPC. Shekar was arrested as he was friend of A1 and A2.

The genesis of the case was that there was a conflict between the main accused and the deceased person who were both members in a WhatsApp group called Govindapally Village Group. The main accused person and the murdered man belonged to BJP, but during the last assembly elections, both joined the Congress. Since then, the deceased was stated to have made comments and provoked the main accused person (A1) and used to delete the messages which were posted by the latter in the village group.

---

Bearing grudge on this, the main accused person along with his accomplice, kidnapped the deceased person, confined him in a rented villa. He then stabbed him with a knife and killed him. V. Raghunath, Senior counsel assisted by on record counsel Kadire Ajith submitted that merely being friend of A1, the petitioner was falsely implicated in the murder. The petitioner was in no way concerned with said incident, he argued. The petitioner’s name was not even mentioned in the complaint and no specific overt act was attributed to him even after most of the investigation in the case was completed, the counsel argued.

On the other hand, Additional Public prosecutor argued that serious allegations were levelled against the petitioner. He further submited that investigation was in progress and if the petitioner was released on bail at this stage, he might tamper with the evidence.

The Judge after considering the said submissions, observed that “it is apparent that both the deceased and A.1 belong to different political parties and merely being friend him, the petitioner was arrested. The Judge further opined that there were no specific overt acts attributed against the petitioner. Accordingly, the judge disposed the case by granting conditional bail and directed the petitioner to execute Rs.20,000/- bond. The Judge further directed the petitioner to appear before the concerned Police station on every Saturday for a period of eight weeks or till filing of charge sheet.