Hyderabad: Vikram Goud meticulously planned the entire attack and paid Rs 5 lakh as advance to the suspects. He agreed to pay a total of Rs 50 lakh to the suspects if the plan succeeded. He took them to his home, and made them conduct a recce of the area. He also showed them the escape routes and the place where they could dispose off the gun. He put them up at a lodge at Banjara Hills two days before the incident. Mr Goud believed his plan was foolproof and the police would never find the truth.
Mr Goud met one of the accused A. Govind Reddy, 29, a native of YSR district, two years ago when Mr. Reddy expressed his interest to act in films. Since Vikram had been a producer earlier, he agreed to help him.
“Four months back, Mr Goud met Mr. Reddy again and expressed his desire to increase his popularity in Hyderabad so that he could get an MLA ticket and win the election. They both hatched a plan to stage an attempt to murder Mr Goud with an intention to frame his rivals,” said a police official.
Mr Goud paid Rs 5 lakh to Mr. Reddy, who then met another accused S. Nanda Kumar, 35, a burglar from Anantapur district. Mr Reddy paid Rs 3.5 lakh to Nanda Kumar to pull the task.
“Nanda searched for men who could buy a firearm and then shoot Mr Goud. He contacted a person named Shaik Ahmed, 30, a carpenter from Anantapur district, who in turn introduced shooter Raees Khan from Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Two other aides of Nanda Babujan and Chinna, went to Indore and purchased the firearm,”said the official.
“As per their initial plan, Babujan and Chinna would come and attack Mr Goud on July 26. But due to some miscommunication, it did not work out. Later, Mr Goud asked Raees to come to Hyderabad to shoot him,” said the officer.
Shot thrice as his lucky number is 3!
Vikram Goud told the shooter Raees Khan to fire three times because three is his lucky number. The plan was to fire two bullets, one into Mr. Goud’s right shoulder and the other into his left shoulder, and the third bullet should brush past the right side of his stomach causing a minor injury.
But as both Mr Goud and the shooter panicked after two shots, the third bullet went into his stomach and was stuck in his spinal cord.
Mr Goud believed he might die. “He realised what a fool he was only after he sustained the injuries,” said a police officer investigating the case of the shooting drama staged by Mr Goud himself.
According to the police, the shooter opened fire from an extremely close range so that he would get it right and not inflict a fatal wound. “Till the shooter fired the third shot, Mr Goud did not cry out at all. He waited for the third shot, and after it hit him, he asked Raees to run away. Mr Goud then shouted for help, which was heard by his wife,” said a police official.
Putting together the events prior to the shooting, an investigating officer said, “On Friday at around 2.30 am, Mr Goud took the suspects, S. Nanda Kumar, Shaik Ahmed and Raees Khan to a place near his home in his own car. He told them to come to his house after 15 minutes and returned home. When they came in, he made them sit in the hall while he went upstairs and brought the firearm. He told Raees to fire three rounds since three was his lucky number.”
Shaik Ahmed was waiting outside with a bike on which Raees would escape. Nanda was asked to wait on the road with a four wheeler in which he would also escape.
The two vehicles would be caught on CCTV cameras on the road, and the police would try and track them, thinking his rivals had attacked him.
