Psycho serial killer held after 4 years

KADAPA: At last the district police have detained the wanted psycho killer Thota Peddavenkataramana, who killed three persons in GV Puram village of Obulavaripalle mandal and made murder attempts on several others over the past four years, at a temple at Koochivaripalle on Rajampet- Rayachoti road and seized a revolver, country-made gun, five rounds of ammunition and two mobiles from him.

Producing the Peddavenkataramana before the media here, district SP GVG Ashok Kumar said that there are as many as nine cases including three murders pending against him.

Explaining about his criminal history, the SP said that the accused started his criminal record in 2009 after a petty dispute with his cousin Thota Venkataramana during a cricket match.

He first killed his rival, Thota Venkataramana in November 2009 and surrendered before the court. While he was in judicial remand, relatives of Venkataramana, humiliated the mother of accused Pedda Venkataramana, set their house on fire and drove her away from the village.

After his release on bail, Pedda venkataramana started killing his rivals in the village as they humiliated his mother. After attending some court adjournments, he went absconding.

Later, he bought a country-made gun and killed Gabbi Ramakrishna in June 2012, while he was asleep in his residence. He also attacked his rival Thota Subramanay in July, 2012 with gun, when the latter was going to his fields.

However, he was escaped with injuries and latter the government issued him a licensed revolver for self defence from Pedda Venkataramana.

In March 2013, he once again tried to fire at Subramanay with a gun at the latter's residence, set the residence of another rival Thota Narayana on fire and hacked papaya trees of his another rival Gabbi Venkatasubbaiah.

On November 24, Peddavenkataramana came to the village and shot dead Subramanyam while he was on his way to his agricultural fields. Later, the psycho killer went absconding along with Subramanyam's licensed revolver.

With the serial killer prowling since four years, the villagers spent many sleepless nights sensing fear of his attack. Against this backdrop, police too took the issue as a challenge and succeeded in detaining him on Saturday.

After learning that he was staying in Tirumala lodge in Rajampet town, police kept a vigil in the surroundings and caught him.

During the course of interrogation, the accused said that he used to work in Crazy hotel in Vijayawada and occasionally visited his village for acquiring details of his targets and murdering them.

Based on the information provided by the accused, police seized the country-made gun, with which he killed Gabbi Ramakrishnaiah and Thota Subramanyam near Upparapalle village of Pullampet mandal.

When asked about the negligence on part of police in detaining the accused, the SP Ashok Kumar said they have appointed OSD Chandrasekhar Reddy as an enquiry officer.

Though, the police reportedly took the accused into their custody on Thursday, they produced him before media and were said to be interrogating him at an undisclosed location for the last two days.