Police drop murder charge against evangelist KA Paul

Update: In an order issued in 2015, the police dropped the charges against the accused to prosecute him before the court of law. The case was fererred to as "action dropped".

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh police on Monday arrested evangelist KA Paul, president and founder of Global Peace Initiative (GPI), and two of his associates in a case of conspiracy to murder.

They are accused of conspiring to abduct and murder Paul's associate Koteswara Rao. Rao is the main accused in the murder of Paul's brother K David Raju, who was found killed in Mahaboobnagar in 2010.


Prakasam district superintendent of police, K Raghuram Reddy, told reporters that the evangelist, who was conspiring to abduct and kill Rao, offered police officials a bribe of Rs 1 crore to assist him in the crime. Paul was caught paying an advance of Rs 3 lakh to police officials on the spy camera, he said.

Police said Paul, who was in Ongole to inaugurate the office of his political outfit Praja Shanthi, wanted to eliminate Rao, fearing that he might expose the real plot behind the killing of David Raju. The police have been suspecting the role of Paul behind the murder of his brother since both had differences over the control of huge properties of his organisation.

Paul, who was at loggerheads with the late chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, had in 2007 floated his own political outfit Praja Shanthi to contest in the assembly elections. Though he lost the assembly elections in 2009, Paul is now eying to field his candidates in the bypolls scheduled for next month in Andhra Pradesh.

"My arrest is part of a conspiracy to scuttle the political prospects of my party, Praja Shanthi, in the ensuing elections," Paul told reporters on his way to jail, after he was remanded to judicial custody by a local court.

Originally named Anand Kilari, Paul was born on September 25, 1963, in a small village called Chittivalasa in Andhra Pradesh in a poor Hindu family.

Paul had accused YSR of seeking $5 million for party funds in December 2003, with a promise to help GPI spread to overseas destinations. Even as YSR supporters staged demonstrations, burnt Paul's effigies and attacked his offices across the state demanding apology, the revenue authorities probed into land deals of Paul's Charity City and recovered some eight acres of assigned land that was originally allotted to the poor. Refusing to offer apology and defending his allegations against YSR, Paul had challenged the late chief minister to undergo lie detector tests.

Stepping up his allegations against ruling Congress leaders, Paul had even dragged Congress President Sonia Gandhi into the controversy by accusing her of conspiring with YSR to scuttle his GPI missions to anti-US countries. Paul had also staged demonstrations against the governments, accusing them of stopping funds to his trust and causing problems to thousands of children belonging to the schools run by his trust.

Paul had also publicly accused YSR of misusing the state machinery to help his son-in-law and evangelist brother Anil Kumar organise gospel meetings across the state. Taking advantage of this, YSR's opponents accused him of misusing the chief minister's post to prop up his son-in-law to counter and suppress Paul.

The opposition parties also questioned the source of funds for Anil Kumar to organise large-scale gospel events.