Vijayawada: Three people received burn injuries and one of them got serious burns, when a man set fire to a car after locking them inside in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada on Monday evening, the police said.
The incident happened at Bharat Nagar, in the heart of the city on the national highway (NH 16) just adjacent to a five-star hotel.
Two of the injured Gangadhar and his wife Nagamalli managed to escape with partial burns, while another person Krishna Reddy sustained 60 per cent burns. All three of them were admitted to a private hospital. Vijayawada deputy commissioner of police V Harshavardhan Raju said the accused Venugopal Reddy was absconding.
Raju, who rushed to the spot, told reporters that a dispute over some property was believed to be the reason for Venugopal Reddy to resort to the crime. They had been into a property financing business since 2014 and were believed to be incurring losses of late.
Preliminary inquiries by the police revealed Venugopal Reddy, a native of Tadepalli in Guntur district, had acquired a piece of land in Eluru of West Godavari district and called his three other business partners, Gangadhar, Nagamalli and Krishna Reddy, to discuss money matters.
They met around 2 pm and went around several areas in Krishna and Guntur districts before finally arriving at Bharati Nagar. “After some heated discussion while sitting in the car, Venugopal Reddy got down, locked the doors with a remote and doused the car with petrol which he had carried in a bottle, presumably with a plan,” the DCP said.
Gangadhar and Nagamalli, who were sitting in the backseat, jumped out of the car immediately even before fire engulfed the car. Krishna Reddy, however, struggled to come out of the burning car for some time. But he, too, managed to get out of the car and jumped into a canal to save himself.
By the time a fire tender arrived, the car was completely burnt. “The three injured people are undergoing treatment in a hospital,” Harshavardhan Raju said, adding that a case of arson and attempt to murder had been registered.
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