Hyderabad: Hyderabad Disaster Response Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) commissioner AV Ranganath, who was the Nalgonda district superintendent of police (DSP) in the 2018 honour killing of a Dalit young man P Pranay, said that the convicts will not get any relief even in higher courts.

Ranganath said this in response to the special court in Telangana’s Nalgonda town awarding death penalty to the contract killer and life imprisonment to six others on Monday, March 10.

Pranay, 24, was hacked to death by Subhash Kumar Sharma in full public view when he, along with his pregnant wife Amrutha and mother, were coming out of a private hospital in Miryalaguda on September 14, 2018. The brutal murder was caught on CCTV camera and had drawn considerable national attention.

Ranganathan, who served as DSP of Nalgonda district, and his team cracked the case in three days. Speaking to the media, Ranganath said the case was a learning experience allowing him to study human behaviour, challenges faced in inter-caste marriages and teenage psychology, all while investigating the case.

“The truth cannot be hidden for too long and it eventually comes out,” he said.

Recollecting the investigation, Ranganathan said the then Miryalguda DSP P Srinivas who was also the investigating officer in the case, was cross-examined for seven days. This helped them anticipate the defense’s line of questioning and prepare their answers accordingly.

During the course of investigation, Ranganathan had interrogated the prime accused and Amrutha ‘s father, Maruthi Rao. Initially uncooperative, Rao finally admitted to the crime. He died by suicide in 2020 while on bail.

He said that though there was delay in preparing the charge-sheet in the case because of the challenges involved, which had invited criticism from some quarters, the delay was valid, as a strong case was built against the accused.

Soon after the court’s verdict, Nalgonda superintendent of police (SP) Sharat Chandra Pawar said that Subhash Sharma had tried to furnish fake sureties to obtain bail. But it was cancelled after the police filed another FIR against him. He stated that the investigating team had recorded the statements of 102 witnesses during the trial period.

He credited Miryalguda DSP Srinivas, CI Nagaraju, public prosecutor Ramulu, then Nalgonda SP Ranganath, and the entire investigation team for securing justice to Pranay’s family.

Amrutha, who had been fighting for justice in the case and had vowed never to return to her parents’ house, delivered a baby boy in 2019. After the verdict was pronounced, Pranay’s parents went to his grave and offered tributes to their departed son.