HYDERABAD: The grandson of Velamati Chandrashekara Janardhan Rao, founder of Telangana’s Veljan Group of Industries, was arrested Sunday on charges of brutally murdering the 86-year-old over a property dispute three days ago.
Police said they had recovered the murder weapon from Kilaru Kirti Teja, 29, who had recently returned from the US after completing his master’s degree there. While the post-mortem report is awaited, the cops claim the Hyderabad-based industrialist had “over 70 injuries”, indicating he was stabbed as many times.
“On Thursday night (Feb 6), Teja had an argument with Rao, accusing the latter of not dividing his property the right way among family members. He was upset nobody in the company gave him money or respect. In a fit of rage, Teja attacked his grandfather and repeatedly stabbed him. After killing Rao, Teja changed his blood-stained clothes and fled from his grandfather’s house in Somajiguda,” inspector B Shobhan of Panjagutta police station said.
While police confirmed the multiple stab injuries on the victim’s body, they maintained that the exact number could be ascertained only after they received the post-mortem report. Teja was arrested from a spot near Rao’s house, police said. He had been living with his parents in Lanco Hills, a gated community in Hyderabad’s western corridor.
Teja had held a grudge against Rao. On the day of the murder, he went to his grandfather’s house with his mother – Rao’s daughter – and confronted the industrialist. “When the victim’s mother tried to restrain her son, the accused attacked her as well,” said a police official. He said it was Teja’s mother who alerted her brother, a resident of Jubilee Hills, about the murder. Rao has three daughters and a son.