AP police crack grisly murder of NRI businessman

File photo of Chigurupati Jayaram and the car in which his body was found.

The Andhra Pradesh Police on Tuesday presented before the media, the main accused in the murder of NRI businessman and CEO of a Telugu news channel, Chigurupati Jayaram, whose dead body was found in his swanky car on the national highway near Nandigama, off Vijayawada, on January 31.

Describing the gory end of the businessman, well-known in both the Telugu states of AP and Telangana, Krishna District Superintendent of Police Sarvashresht Tripathi said that a realtor and middleman Rakesh Reddy was behind the murder. The police found from the CC TV footage from different toll booths that the man driving Jayaram’s car was Reddy, and wore a different shirt from that of the deceased.

Police also matched the beer bottles seen in the hands of the accused in CC TV footage from near a wine shop in Nandigama, and the empty bottles found near the car in which Reddy left the dead body of the businessman. The police realised that the death was stage-managed as the injuries on the dead body did not appear to have been suffered in a highway accident.

“Jayaram, who lived in Florida, had business ties with a private bank here and a media house. He heavily borrowed money from Rakesh, who befriended Jayarama’s niece Srikha Reddy. With pressure mounting from Reddy, who had arranged the loans of around Rs 4 crore, Jayaram returned to the USA and blocked the phone number of Reddy,” the SP said. After the watchman of the Hyderabad house of Jayaram tipped off that the owner had returned, Reddy hatched a plan.

Fake DP

He started sending WhatsApp messages to Jayaram under the DP of a pretty girl, who persuaded the latter to come alone to her No 10 Jubilee Hills house here. On the night of January 30, Reddy and his accomplice, who has been arrested, tortured Jayaram in the empty house and extracted only Rs 6 lakh. In a fit of rage Reddy banged the head of the NRI on a sofa, killing him instantly. As Jayaram was supposed to go to Vijayawada, Reddy tried to dispose the body on the highway near Vijayawada.

The Telangana police have initiated action against the Station officer of Nallakunta Station Srinivas and ACP of Ibrahimpatnam Malla Reddy, who allegedly gave tips to the culprit to erase the evidence. Rakesh Reddy will be taken into police custody for further questioning, the SP said.