KAKINADA: Thanelanka, a peaceful village in Mummidivaram mandal of East Godavari district has made news headlines for all the bad reasons. Janepalli Srinivasa Rao, who attacked YSRC president Jagan Mohan Reddy in Visakhapatnam International Airport last week, hails from this village.
Of late, an eerie silence has descended on the village. The shame shows on their faces; villagers around Thanelanka look upon them as criminals. The villagers are quite friendly in nature. A stranger to Thanelanka can perambulate safely through the village and go about his/her work. But things have come to such a pass now that the villagers are frustrated because of the regular police movement; they even refuse to give directions to Srinivasa Rao’s home to media persons.
Thanelanka has a population of around 4,500 population. There are seven Anganwadi centres in the village — Chinatanelanka, Pedatanelanka, Vaddigudem, Gopalaraopeta, Padamolli and Vargalanka.
A 700-metre gravel path leads to the house of the prime accused. Thick bushes grow on both sides of the path. Before becoming rich, Srinivasa Rao’s family eked out a livelihood working as daily wage labourers. They constructed a pucca house only 10 months ago.
Locals say Srinivasa Rao, who has a penchant for members of the fairer sex, had purchased land worth Rs 1 crore recently. People of the village are sure that lure of easy money had turned him into a criminal. “We don’t know where he used to get the money from, but he spent a luxurious life days in the run up to the incident,” locals said.
Presently, his sister-in-law Babi and his elder brother Subbaraju and their children live in the house. Srinivasa Rao’s parents Savithri and Thatarao have gone to Visakhapatnam.Though Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials have left Mummidivaram, they get all information from a Sub-Inspector of One Town police station in Visakhapatnam, who is presently camping in Mummidivaram police station. He collects titbits of information and sends the same to Visakhapatnam SIT officials. This way SIT officials monitor each and every movement at Thanelanka village.