Hyderabad:
After eluding sleuths for almost 14 months, Malishetty Bhanu Kiran, the prime accused in the murder of gangster Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Suri, was arrested on Saturday by the Andhra Pradesh police.
Bhanu Kiran, a former close aide of Suri, allegedly shot him dead at Navodaya colony in Yousufguda area on January 3 last year.
The police arrested him from the outskirts of Zaheerabad town in Medak district bordering Karnataka on Saturday morning, Crime Investigation Department''s (CID)Additional Director General, S V Ramana Murthy said.
Bhanu was involved in 15 cases, including extortion, land grab and cheating, and he admitted his role in all these cases, the top CID official claimed.
Police seized a .32 bore revolver, allegedly used in the murder, from Bhanu.
Police had earlier arrested four persons in connection with the murder, including Bhanu's gunman Manmohan Singh, a month after the crime. But Bhanu continued to evade them.
Murthy said after the murder he and Manmohan had fled to Delhi via Solapur, Pune and Mumbai.
He had taken along Rs 4 lakh while fleeing, but recently ran out of money, and came to Zaheerabad for collecting some more cash when the CID personnel nabbed him.
"During the interrogation, Bhanu has confessed that he planned to eliminate Suri because there was a threat to his life from the latter. Bhanu had got involved in extortion and land and property dispute settlement rackets, which were being handled by Suri. Suri warned him in this regard, after which Bhanu nursed a grudge against him," Murthy said.
Bhanu moved from place to place, and travelled to Delhi, Gurgaon, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Puduchery and other parts of the country.
Suri himself was the prime accused in the murder of Telegu Desam Party (TDP) leader Paritala Ravi. Bhanu will be produced before the court.