Sadiq Khan Arrested On Charges Of Forcible Religious Conversion, Abetment To Murder

The Sarpavaram police arrested Shaik Sadiq Khan in connection with the death of three members of a family and registered cases under 12 sections. These included allegations of forcible religious conversion, based on a suicide note left by Kovvuri Soujanya.

Soujanya, her father Thillapudi Nooka Raju and his wife Meena died after jumping into the Godavari river near Rajamahendravaram on August 16.

Six special teams of the police, supervised by SP Bindu Madhav, spread the dragnet for Sadiq Khan across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. He was finally arrested within the limits of Nauchandi police station in Uttar Pradesh.

Police produced him before a court in Meerut and obtained a transit warrant on August 22. He was brought to Sarpavaram police station on Sunday night, produced before a magistrate court in Kakinada and remanded to custody.

The East Godavari police will seek a PT warrant from the court to take Sadiq Khan into custody in connection with the deaths of the three family members in the Rajamahendravaram region.

Police said the accused did not carry mobile phones or use ATM cards while evading arrest, but the special teams traced him using new technology. The investigating officer would seek the court's permission to take the accused into custody.

According to the SP, Soujanya’s suicide note led to the registration of a religious conversion case against Sadiq Khan. The accused was traced to Meerut, where he stayed with some of his acquaintances.

Deceased Soujanya stated in two suicide notes that Sadiq Khan had killed her husband, Kovvuri Jagadeesh Reddy, by administering chemical poison. Based on a complaint lodged by Jagadeesh Reddy’s father, Bhaskar Reddy, the Sarpavaram police registered a murder case.

The SP commended the SIT officials involved in tracing and arresting the accused under the supervision of additional SP Mahanthi Kishore.