Nellore: A Nellore court has awarded a death penalty to notorious psycho killer Kukkalapalli Venkateswarlu (29) for bludgeoning four people to death in 2016.

The four brutal murders that took place in Nellore district last year has sent shock waves. Venkateswarlu alias Venkatesh, who is a native of Kavali in the district, used to eke out a living by working in a fast food eatery and became addicted to liquor, ganja and cricket betting. For this, he took to robbing people and killing them mercilessly.

In March 2016, he targeted a household in Rajivnagar in Kavali town. Posing as an Aadhar official, he knocked at the door of one Suseela. As she opened the door, Venkatesh sneaked into the house and attacked Suseela with a hammer. He also attacked two children and woman, identified as Kavitha, in the same house. He fled the place with gold ornaments from the victims. Kavitha was killed in the incident.

In the second incident, he attacked temple priest Chandramouleswar Rao and his wife Pushpaveni at Allipuram on April 1, 2016 for money and jewellery. The couple succumbed to their injuries.

On July, 2016, he targeted a woman lecturer, identified as Prabhavathi, in Ramjinagar on the Children’s Park Road. Posing as a set-top box operator, he entered the house. He waited for the right moment and attacked Prabavathi with a hammer.

He, then assaulted her son and daughter in the bedroom. At that instant, Prabavathi's husband Nageshwar Rao returned home from work and saw the family members lying in pool of blood. Venkatesh got panicked and hid himself in pooja room. Nageshwar Rao caught hold of Venkatesh and raised an alarm. The locals gathered and overpowered Venkatesh. He was later handed over to the police. Prabhavathi was declared brought dead by the doctors, while her children survived the attack.

The 4th Additional Sessions court awarded life sentence to Venkatesh in the twin murder of the temple priest and his wife. But the judge decided to award capital punishment for the accused in the case pertaining to Prabhavathi's murder.