Last Sunday, the police foiled a murder plan by arresting four members of a gang and seizing sharp-edged weapons and a pistol.
The city would have seen another gruesome murder of a rowdy sheeter in a gang rivalry in the beginning of the year, if the alert City Task Force team led by ACP I .Chittibabu would not have tracked the movement of the gang and got them arrested just before they were about to commit the crime.
But the arrest revealed the simmering discontent within the gangs and it is growing with every passing day.
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The rivalry is no longer limited to fight over control of areas, but it is going the ‘faction’ way with gang members tracking the movement of each other with the sole motive being ‘revenge’ killing.
Background
About five years ago the city had just one major gang that was led by Telugu Anil Kumar with Kasim and Chittimamu as his main lieutenants.
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It all began with Chittimamu parting ways with Anil over area control and subsequently Anil and his gang brutally killed Chittimamu’s brother Rajesh and one Nagesh in 2014.
The double murder was the seed for the gang rivalry and it led to a spurt of killings thereafter, which continue even today.
In 2015, Anil was brutally done to death by Chittimamu and nine of his gang members, including Podugu Kiran and B. Narasimha Murthy alias Natchu at Allipuram. And this aggravated the enmity between Chittimamu and Anil’s trusted hitman Kasim, who took over the gang, after Anil’s death.
Subsequently, Kasim reportedly got Natchu killed and Podugu Kiran who was in jail had committed suicide.
With the suicide of Kiran things have taken a different turn. Chittimamu and Kiran’s friends believe that it was Kasim who drove him to commit suicide and they have created a group in the What’s App by the name ‘AC-DC Kiranism’.
The App is now used to spew hate on the rivalry of Kasim group and track their movement.
Chittimamu, who was arrested under PD Act, was released in the first week of December last year and he was received by about 200 of his followers who took out a procession to Simhachalam temple and after a holy bath and offering of prayers at the temple, it is learnt that they had taken an oath to finish off Kasim and his gang, said ACP I. Chittibabu.
Now there are two major gangs in the city- one belonging to Kasim and the other of Chittimamu. There are about 150 rowdy-sheeters, split between the two gangs and there are a number of sub-gangs operating under them.
The Sunday’s arrest of Palla Lokesh alias Puli, Shankar Goud alias Pilli Kallu Shankar, Gudlu Vinod Kumar and Ambati Madhusudan Rao, is part of that gang war.
Puli who belongs to Chittimamu gang procured the weapons to get rid of Lanka Vinay, who belongs to Kasim gang. About three months ago, Vinay tried to kill Puli near a bar in Marripalem and in the fight Vinay’s driver was killed and Puli escaped. And since then both are trying to eliminate each other.
If rivalry between the two gangs continues, then the city is likely to see more blood bath in the coming days.
Sumit Bhattacharjee