The police on Saturday arrested seven persons, including the wife of Big Boss fame (Telugu) Nutan Naidu, N. Priya Madhuri, 28, on charges of assaulting and tonsuring a 20-year-old Dalit youth on Friday.
The police collected CCTV footage at Nutan Naidu’s house, which reportedly revealed that the accused thrashed and tonsured K. Srikanth, resident of Pendurthi.
The arrested included T. Indira Rani (26), housekeeping supervisor, Ch. Varahalu (35), Supervisor, I. Ravi Kumar (26), a barber, S Balagangadhar (29), M Jhansi (19) and M Sowjanya (29), staff at Nutan Naidu’s house.
Commissioner of Police Manish Kumar Sinha said the youth worked as housekeeping boy at Nutan Naidu’s house from February to August 1. However, he left the job and took up another profession. On August 27, Varahalu asked Srikanth to come to the house. When Srikanth went to the house, Priya Madhuri allegedly accused him of stealing her iphone. Denying it, Srikanth left the house.
On Friday, Varahalu asked him to come to the house at around 1 p.m, when Srikanth arrived, he was allegedly thrashed by the some of the inmates and staff with sticks and steel rods. He was also allegedly verbally abused, said Mr. Sinha.
Later the accused called Ravi Kumar, who tonsured the youth. They allegedly threatened him not to reveal the incident to anyone, the police said.
After the victim approached Pendurthi police, a team rushed to the house and collected the evidence, including the CCTV footage, tonsured hair and the sticks used to beat the youth.
The police said that after tonsuring the youth, a few of the accused reportedly took selfies with him and later they deleted it. However, their mobile phones were seized and the deleted data retrieved.
The police have booked cases under Sections of attempt to murder (307), voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons (324), and other various sections including 342,324,323,506 r/w 34 IPC & 3(1)(e) & 3(2)(v) of SC/ST POA Act, 2015
Judicial remand
“All the accused were arrested and sent to judicial remand. Further we would take them into police custody and ascertain more facts in the case,” Mr. Sinha said. As of now, the police have not found any role of Nutan Naidu.
