``Yes I did commit a blunder by killing Vaishnavi for money,'' confessed Morla Srinivas, accused in Vaishnavi murder case, with repentence writ large on his face.
When one of the members of the Legal Services Committee, which visited the district jail, where three Vaishnavi killers were lodged, asked him how can he commit such a ghastly crime on a 10-year-old kid, Srinivas said ``I did it at the behest of Venkatrao who offered me Rs 50 lakh to eliminate Vaishnavi, but at the end of the day I received only Rs 1 lakh. I admit that it was a grave crime.''
Vaishnavi had been kidnapped and later done to death early this month. On knowing his daughter's murder Vaishnavi's father Palagani Prabhakar suffered a stroke only to succumb to it. His car driver Lakhmana Rao was also killed in the process of kidnap. The desperadoes burnt the body of Vaishnavi in a furnace belonging to Srinivas in Guntur autonagar.
However, there was no repentence in the face of Venkatrao, the main conspirator and brother-in-law of Palagani. ``I have nothing to do with the killings and the alleged killers were only dragging me into the case to bail themselves out of the case.They might have indulged in kidnapping the girl for ransom and later killed her when their plan went awry and I am no way connected to the case,'' says Venkatrao without any remorse.
Even the police have no clues of my involvement in Vaishnavi's murder, he added.
Co-accused Jagadish reportedly said that being a car driver of Srinivas, he did his duty by taking out the car. He reportedly disowned any role in the killing of Vaishnavi and car driver.