Hyderabad, August 23: Four members of a family, including two minors, were found murdered at a lodge near Secunderabad railway station on Saturday morning.
All the victims were strangulated to death. The police are on the lookout for four others who had checked in along with the victims’ family three days ago.
Gopalapuram police identified the victims as K Prasada Rao, 40, who was working with an oil firm in Dubai, his wife Vijayalakshmi, 37, daughter Kavitha, 11, and son Ketan, 10. According to the police, two persons came to RAK Royal Lodge near Secunderabad railway station on August 19 at about 6 pm and booked three rooms for three families. They reportedly told the lodge manager that they came to the city for sight-seeing.
Prasada Rao, a native of Rajole in East Godavari district, had been working as engineer in a Dubai company for the past 10 years.
He came to his village from Dubai following the death of his brother. He was supposed to have left for Dubai on August 21 and his family came to the city along with two other families on August 19 and checked into the lodge in the evening.
Four of them left the lodge at 4 am on August 20 after reportedly telling the lodge manager that they were going to receive their relatives. But they never returned.
The police broke open the door on Saturday morning after lodge staff complained of foul smell coming from the rooms.
While Prasada Rao’s body was found in a room, the other three bodies were found in another room.
The police found the passport and flight ticket of Prasada Rao and some train tickets from Tadepalligudem to Hyderabad in the lodge.
City police commissioner B Prasada Rao, who visited the scene of offence, said Prasad’s family was murdered.
The police booked a murder case and sent the samples of the victims to the Forensic Science Laboratory for investigation.
-Agencies