Vijayawada: Police on Saturday arrested three persons for dousing a 14-year-old tenth class boy with petrol and setting him afire. One more accused is yet to be arrested.
Providing details to media in Bapatla, district SP Vakul Jindal explained that Uppala Amaranath, a resident of Upplavaripalem village in Cherukupalli mandal, was going for tuition at about 5:00 am on Friday. His friends stopped him, took him behind stacks of maize, poured petrol over him and set him on fire. Amaranath died while undergoing treatment at the government hospital in Guntur the same day.
In the course of inquiry, police found that the main accused Pamu Venkateswara Reddy of Rajavolu village had been harassing Amaranath’s elder sister for some time. Family elders took up the issue, which led to Venkateswara Reddy being reprimanded in the presence of his parents.
Amaranath kept publicising this issue, which led to Venkateswara Reddy nursing a grudge and conspiring to kill Amaranath. Accordingly, as per plan, Venkateswara Reddy, along with his three friends, accosted Amaranath and torched him.
The SP identified the accused as Pamu Venkateswara Reddy, Pamu Gopi Reddy, Maddela Veera Babu and Tumma Sambireddy.
Vakul Jindal ruled out any political differences between the two families and said they are all daily wage labourers. He said police will place entire evidence, including the dying declaration of the victim, before the court to see that the guilty are punished and the victim's family gets justice.
MP Mopidevi Venkata Ramana Rao visited the victim’s family on Saturday. He said he will take up the matter with the state government and help one of the family members get a job.
