The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : One held in student's murder case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 11, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

One held in student's murder case

By Our Staff Reporter

NELLORE, NOV.10. The police here on Wednesday nabbed the P. Nagendra, accused in the murder of a student, P. Dhananjaya of Narayana Junior College on the campus at Brahmadevi, exactly a week ago.

Addressing a press conference, the Superintendent of Police, B. Sivadhar Reddy, said both the victim and accused belonged to Yadiki village of Anantapur district and were weavers by caste. Nagendra is said to be the last of four brothers and the family was engaged in dyeing work, belonging to Sreeramulu, father of Dhananjaya.

On December 25, 1998, Ramudu, brother of Nagendra, committed suicide and in his dying declaration mentioned three names, including that of Sreeramulu. After that, the relations between the two families soured and since then Nagendra had been nursing a grudge against Dhananjaya's family. Since his brother was hardly 16 years at that time, Nagendra wanted to kill a person of the same age in Sreeramulu's family and finally targeted Dhananjaya, according to the SP.

The incident

A few days ago, he telephoned Sreeramulu, introduced himself as a friend of Dhananjaya and secured his address. Later, he bought a knife and reached Nellore on November 2.

The next day he went to Narayana Junior College, introduced himself as Nagaraju (since a person by that name was known to Sreeramulu's family) and was escorted to Dhananjaya's room by a security guard. Nagendra introduced himself to Dhananjaya and both went to the latter's room. After some time, Nagendra left the place.

Later, he went back to the campus. Dhananjaya was alone in his room and after engaging him in conversation, Nagendra allegedly whipped out his knife and slit the throat of Dhananjaya. Nagendra also allegedly stabbed him repeatedly and left the knife in the body. A student who saw it raised an alarm but the accused managed to escape.

After staying in the nearby fields for the night and washing his clothes, the accused went to Ongole, where he tonsured his head. Then he proceeded to Chirala, where he came to know that Dhananjaya had died.

He was proceeding to Proddatur, via Nellore, where, on information, the police nabbed him.

The S.P. complimented his staff -- the rural DSP, Eswaraiah, Inspector, Muralikrishna, and others --for the prompt investigation and arrest of the accused.

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