Hyderabad: About a week after a 30-year-old man allegedly set his father, stepmother and two half-brothers on fire in Pargi of Vikarabad district over a property dispute, one of the siblings succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. The condition of the father and stepmother is critical, cops said.Pargi police have booked a case of murder against the accused, Anar Singh, and started a probe.The deceased, Nenavath Venkatesh (25), is one of the three children from the second marriage of Singh’s father, Hanumanth to Ramani Bai, who is a local sarpanch. While their other son, Shiva, escaped with minor injuries, their daughter, Naveena, was not home at the time of the incident.Preliminary investigation reveals that Singh has been embroiled in a dispute over six acres (approx.) with his father following the death of his mother, Nathi Bai, due to ill-health five months ago, and was allegedly seeking revenge. On the day of the crime, he went to the terrace of the victims’ house around 1 am. Through a hole in the roof, he poured petrol into the house — with the four people inside — and set it ablaze.The victims could not escape as Singh had allegedly locked the front door from outside.“As per the complaint by Shiva, Singh threatened to kill them even as the house was burning,” a Pargi cop said.“Villagers, alerted by the victims’ screams, broke open the door and shifted all four to hospital,” he added.Doctors said Hanumanth suffered 40% burns, while Ramani Bai and Venkatesh suffered 90% burns.“Before his wedding to Ramani Bai, Hanumanth was married to Nathi Bai and had two children with her — Singh and Chitti Bai. Since the first wife’s death, he and Singh have been sparring over the partition of the former’s property and also the money that Hanumanth received through Rythu Bhima (Rs 5 lakh),” the cop said.Matters came to a boil on March 18 when both parties landed at the Pargi police station to file a case.“Hanumanth had given one acre to Singh and kept the remaining (more than five acres) for his second wife. Singh was insisting that it be divided equally, and that led to the cases,” the cop added.Soon after the fire, police arrested Singh on the charge of attempt to murder. It was later altered to murder following the death of Venkatesh.
