Steel trader's murder finger at hired killers

Hyderabad: The West Zone Task Force officials who intensified their investigation in steel trader T Ram Prasad's murder case, collected key evidences against main accused Koganti Satyam.

After taking Koganti Satyam, his associates Krishna Reddy, Sudhakar and surrendered accused T Shyam Prasad, Chotu and Ramesh, into their custody, the officials carried out a thorough interrogation.

The officials reportedly came to a conclusion that Koganti Satyam hatched a conspiracy with Shyam and two others and hired them on contract to murder Ram Prasad.

Police is suspecting that according to their plan, Satyam and two others came before the media on Monday and confessed that they murdered Ram Prasad.

Police seized five cell phones of Satyam after taking him into custody in Habsiguda on Monday evening and the car was seized in Gachibowli. The police found that Satyam hatched a plan to kill Ram Prasad 6-months-ago and took utmost care to hide his role in the murder.

Police also took Bansal, a steel trader belonging to Vishakapatnam into custody for interrogation. The officials came to know that Satyam reportedly handed over Rs 30 lakh to Shyam Prasad's family two weeks before the murder.

The police after recording the statements of the family members would interrogate V Srinivas, brother-in-law of Ram Prasad, against whom Satyam made allegations.

On the other hand, one more issue came to light during investigation. Allegedly in 2012, Ram Prasad tried to buy Bhakthanjaneya temple lands worth Rs 25 crore in Khammam.

For that he deposited Rs 2 crore in the Court. But when local people agitated and objected the land buying and approached the court, the court denied the transfer of lands to Ram Prasad.

In that scenario, Koganti Satyam filed a petition in the court by alleging that Rs 2 crore which was deposited by Ram Prasad belongs to Kamakshi Steels.

But the court gave orders to repay the deposited amount to Ram Prasad based on the agreement made earlier.

As the amount was to be deposited into Ram Prasad's account, Koganti Satyam reportedly started harassing and threatening Ram Prasad.