The Kerala police on Wednesday said a 15-year-old internecine blood feud between Maoists-turned businessmen in Andhra Pradesh (AP) had resulted in the murder of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K. Ramulu in Nalgonda district on May 11. Officials, quoting AP investigators who arrived here on Wednesday to take custody of the suspects, said Ramulu was shot to death at a marriage venue ostensibly to avenge the murder of a Maoist in the mid-1990s in Warangal area.
They said Ramulu and his brother Sambasivalu, during their Maoist days, had allegedly executed the brother of their once comrade, Naimudeen, after reckoning him to be a ‘police informer.’
Naimudeen wreaked revenge by allegedly killing Sambasivalu in 2011 and, more recently, contracting the gang, arrested in Kerala on Tuesday, to kill Ramulu.
The case registered at Town 2 police station, Nalgonda, was that Naimudeen allegedly had handed over Rs.12 lakh in cash, three .32-calibre automatic pistols, and several rounds of ammunition to Chialkaraj Suresh, 45, and Somayyah, 35, both former Maoists with a rotten police record, to kill the TRS functionary. At the marriage venue, the ‘hired men’ threw chilli powder on the policemen tasked to guard Ramulu, pushed their ‘target’ to the ground, and shot him at point blank range five times before making their escape.
The AP police recovered one pistol and two live rounds from the scene of crime. Another pistol of unknown make, two bullets, and three mobile phones were recovered from the suspects when they were arrested from an inexpensive lodge here.
ASP, Nalgonda, Rema Rajeshwari, questioned the suspects here. They were produced before a magistrate court and remanded in judicial custody.
The AP police will move the court for their custody and subsequent transit to Nalgonda on Thursday.
