Hyderabad: A man, accused of the 'honour-killing' of his Dalit Christian son-in-law in Telangana's Nalgonda district in September 2018, allegedly committed suicide at a lodge here, police said on Sunday.
Maruti Rao (54) was found dead at the Arya Vaisya Bhavan in the city's Khairatabad area. Based on preliminary investigation, the police said he allegedly committed suicide by consuming insecticide.
They said that Rao had arrived at the lodge on Saturday with his driver, Rajesh, who spent the night in the car.
However, on Sunday morning, when he did not take his wife's phone call, she called the driver. The driver, with the help of the lodge staff, broke the door open when there was no response from him upon knocking. "The staff of the lodge broke open the room door and found him lying dead on the cot," police said.
A suicide note purportedly written by Rao was found in the room in which he apologised to his wife and daughter, the police said. The two-line note said, "Sorry Girija. Amrutha, please go to your mother."
Rao's relatives suspect that he committed suicide because if the pressure of the cases against him.
On the complaint of lodge manager, police registered a suicide case and shifted the body to the city of Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district – where the murder of son-in-law took place – after post-mortem at the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad.
In September 2018, Maruti Rao, was among the seven arrested, including two men acquitted in the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya, in connection with the killing of the 23-year-old Pranay Kumar, who had married an upper caste woman (Rao's daughter) at Miryalguda.
Amrutha, Rao's daughter, had named him, along with her uncle, as the perpetrators of her husband's murder in what turned out to be a case of contract killing for Rs one crore, police had earlier said.
Rao, opposed to the marriage of his daughter, conspired with other accused to eliminate Kumar and also paid an advance of Rs 15 lakh, police had said.
The man's killing on September 14, 2018 had sparked outrage in the state.
CCTV footage of the incident showed the man walking out of a hospital in Miryalguda with his pregnant wife (Rao's daughter) when the assailant attacked him with a machete from behind, killing him instantaneously, police had said.
Amrutha gave birth to a baby boy last year and is currently staying with her in-laws at Miryalaguda.
(With inputs from PTI)
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