Hyderabad: A 38-year old farmer-turned-politician was brutally murdered by four people at Mylaram village in Vikarabad district on Sunday afternoon in what could be a politically motivated crime.
The suspects waylaid Pendyala Srinivas, who was riding pillion and attacked him and the rider with wooden logs. While Srinivas died on the spot, the rider ran for his life through the fields.
DSP Vikarabad Sirisha Raghavendra said the motive was a land dispute between the families of the deceased and the killers. Special teams have been formed to nab the killers.
Srinivas from Mylaram village in Dharur mandal was the son of a former village sarpanch Lalamma. He was an active worker of the Telanagana Rashtra Samithi party and was well known in the village and considered to be the top contender for the post of sarpanch in the forthcoming panchayat elections. Being the son of a former sarpanch, his chances of getting elected were very strong, and this did not go down well with his opponents in the village.
According to the police, on Sunday morning, Srinivas and another person attended a marriage in a neighbouring tanda. Around 12.45 pm, when the two were returning home, four men came up on two bikes from the opposite direction, waylaid them and started attacking them both. The two men fell off the bike and were immediately pounced upon and beaten with wooden logs, with Srinivas being the main target.
“Srinivas had severe injuries on his head, resulting in his instant death. Though land disputes are the main reason behind the murder, other angles are also being probed,” DSP Raghavendra said.
Sources have confirmed that the names of the attackers are Dasu, Rathnam, Prashanth and Arun, all belonging to the same village and members of an opposition party. Dasu was involved in a murder case in 2013 investigated by the Yalal police. Srinivas’s body was handed over to his family after an autopsy. Security has been stepped up in the village as a preventive measure till the final rites are completed on Monday.
