Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Fresh leads in double murder case

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD DEC. 25. The list of suspects in the sensational double murder at Saifabad swelled on Thursday. A lift operator of Mount Nazir Apartments, who was being questioned, reportedly told the police that he had spotted a factory worker near a hotel in Saifabad on Tuesday on the night of which the murders were committed.

As this was a fresh lead, the investigating authorities took into custody the man who turned out to be the car driver of an official of Ravikant Maheswari's factory. However, he pleaded ignorance about the killings and said he was at the factory on Tuesday night, it is learnt. Further enquiries revealed that the car driver used to stay, sometimes, along with the factory official employee at a guesthouse.

Recently, when the factory manager was out of station, he had put up at Ravikant's flat for a few days. The investigating authorities stumbled upon evidence that the driver was aware of huge money stored in the flat. Enquiries at the factory suggested that the driver had left by Tuesday evening raising suspicions over his version.

Meanwhile, the disappearance of Skoda Octavia (No. AP 23F 2520) car, belonging to the industrialist, was turning out to be another puzzling question. Initially, the police hoped that the offenders would abandon the vehicle somewhere as happened in several property offences. "On several occasion, abandoning the vehicle had provided us some clue. But, this case is getting mysterious," a police officer said.

Another possibility is that the assailants could have already crossed the state borders as the murders came to light nearly 12 hours after they were committed. "Driving in a Skoda it is not impossible to reach Bangalore in 12 hours," an investigating officer said. But the question as to why would they choose to travel in a car that could be easily recognised because of its uniqueness was also baffling.

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