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Andhra Pradesh Labour Minister Suddala Devaiah quit on Monday night following accusations of his involvement in the murder of his former driver, whose body was found in Medak district on May 30.
Devaiah submitted his resignation to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who, in turn, forwarded it to Governor Dr C Rangarajan for acceptance, a statement from the chief minister's office said on Monday night.
Police had found the body of the victim, Varala Srinivas (28), near a crusher unit at Ibrahimnagar village in Medak district.
Initially, a case of death under suspicious circumstances was registered. Later, the case was altered to section 302 IPC (murder) after post-mortem of the victim.
Srinivas, who hailed from Challur village in Karimnagar district, had worked for Devaiah four years ago.
The victim's family members told the police that they suspected the minister's role in the murder since Srinivas had left the job following a dispute with him. Thereafter, Srinivas was plying a jeep for a living but the "feud" continued.
Two youths ---- Elkala Raju (22) and Elkala Ramulu (26) -- stated to be close supporters of the minister, hired the jeep run by Srinivas for coming to Hyderabad. When the jeep was near Ibrahimnagar, they stopped it and allegedly stabbed Srinivas to death. However, they were arrested.
During interrogation, the duo confessed that the minister had given them money to kill Srinivas.
They were produced before the sub-divisional magistrate at Siddipet on June 15. In the remand note, the police referred to the confessional statements of the accused, implicating the minister in the case. The accused repeated their confessional statements before the magistrate.
In a statement on Monday night, Devaiah said that in his 22 years of political career, he had not harmed anybody. He denied having anything to do with the murder. He said he had resigned to facilitate an impartial enquiry into the case.
The 44-year-old Devaiah represents the Nerella (reserved) constituency. A former chairman of the Karimnagar zilla parishad, he was elected to the assembly in 1994 and 1999.
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