Congress workers murder TRS leader in Suryapet district

Suryapet: A political rivalry between two leaders took a violent turn when the Congress leader along with his followers chased and murdered the rival TRS leader in a village of Suryapet district on Saturday.

Congress workers attacked TRS leader and Erkaram village former Sarpanch Onteddu Venkanna Yadav (39) with knives , sticks and stones. In this incident Yadav died on the spot with grievous injuries.

The incident took place in Erkaram village of Suryapet mandal when Venkanna along with his followers Madhu, Praveen, Kiran and Naveen were going to meet voters Chintalapati Upender and Chintalapati Jairaj .

Actually, the quarrel took place between Venkanna Yadav and Congress leader Yellaiah of the same village, when TRS leaders shifted voters to a function hall in Suryapet on Friday morning.

Alleging attack on them by TRS leader Venkanna and his followers, Congress workers staged protest before Suryapeta police station.Feeling insulted, Yellaiah and his followers decided to eliminate Yadav. Both leaders along with their followers got involved in an argument when they came across each other during the campaign at late night about 2 am. Just after a gap of 20 minutes, Yellaiah along with his fifteen followers started chasing Venkanna Yadav and his associates. Shocked Venkanna Yadav along with his followers Madhu and Praveen ran here and there and entered in the house of a villager Aavudoddi Veeraiah to save their lives. Other followers Boddu Kiran and Naveen ran in another direction and hid in the bushes to save themselves. Yellaiah and his followers who barged into the Veeraiah's house by breaking the doors, entered the room where Venkanna was hidden. The mob attacked Venkanna collectively. The attackers first broke his hand and then stabbed him with knives and threw a boulder on his head which lead to his instant death. After confirming his Venkanna's death, the assailants fled from spot by car.

Vennkanna's follower Madhu who was hidden behind the cotton bags in the same room and another follower Naveen who was hiding in another room could save their lives.

District in charge SP AV Ranganath visited the village and collected the information about the incident from the local police, villagers and family members of the victim. Learning about the incident, people of the surrounding villages came to Erkaram in large number and visited the murder spot. Suryapet DSP Nageswara Rao , CI Srinivas, SI Sinivas rushed to the village soon after getting the information of the incident and took up all precautionary measures to avoid any untoward incidents till the last rites of Venkanna was completed.

Deceased's wife Nirmala alleged that Congress local leader Yellaiah along with his 15 followers brutally murdered his husband. She stated that Yellaiah had developed grudges against her husband since he was defeated in the sarpanch election. She also alleged that Sarpanch Madhu and Congress leader Patel Ramesh Reddy played a key role in Venkanna's murder.

On complaint of the deceased's brother-in-law Boddu Kiran, Suryapet rural police registered a case and took up investigation.

Minister Jagadish Reddy met the deceased's family members during the postmortem at government hospital in Suryapet and took part in final procession of Venkanna. He expressed his anger over the coward act of Congress workers and assured the victim's family members that he would take care of them in all aspects. He also assured them that the culprits will get rigorous punishment as per the law as government is seeing the matter.