ANANTAPUR/HYDERABAD: As the police were still unable to find any clues in the investigation of Maddelacheruvu Suryanarayana Reddy’s murder, his widow Gangula Bhanumathi accused Telugu Desam party chief N Chandrababu Naidu of being the main conspirator in the case.
In a sharp reaction, the Telugu Desam party hit back at her saying that she was unnecessarily dragging Naidu’s name into the whole issue, who was against faction politics. The TDP leaders said that she was making the charges at the behest of former Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy who wanted to decimate the Telugu Desam party in Anantapur district.
Speaking to media persons, Bhanumathi said that Naidu should be held responsible for the murder of her husband and alleged that slain TD legislator Paritala Ravindra’s family was behind the outrage.
She said that her husband had told her that he suspected threat to his life from Potula Suresh and Chaman who were followers of late Paritala Ravindra. Bhanumati said her husband was done to death by TD men who were afraid that if he remained alive, their party would cease to exist in Anantapur district.
She said she lost confidence in the police that they would be able to arrest Bhanu Kiran, who was the main suspect in the case. She said she would meet chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to request him to entrust the case to the CBI. The police appeared to be more interested in the assets that Bhanu Kiran possessed than actually arresting him, Bhanumathi said.
Reacting sharply to the allegations, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders Kaluva Srinivasulu and BK Parthasarathy said Bhanumathi was making baseless allegation against Naidu at the instance of Jagan Mohan Reddy.
They said that Bhanumathi, who had gone on record saying that Paritala Ravi’s family had nothing to do with the murder of her husband, had changed her version within a week on the direction of Jagan and was now saying that Paritala Ravi’s family was responsible for it.
If she continued to make such allegations, they would wash the dirty linen in the public relating to the illegal activities of Suri. They said that the murder could have been due to disputes in real estate business among Suri’s men but Bhanumathi was unnecessarily dragging Naidu’s name into it. They also threatened to take recourse to legal action.
In Hyderabad, TDP leaders Varla Ramaiah and PR Mohan recalled Suri himself saying that if he were alive then it was because of the law and order maintained by Naidu as chief minister in the past. Now Bhanumati herself is admitting that the police were not investigating the case properly. “Now she says Naidu is responsible for the murder. She changed her version overnight after meeting a gentleman,” they said.
The TDP leaders wanted Bhanumati to demand the state government for a fair probe into Suri’s murder and that the probe should be conducted under the supervision of a high court sitting judge.
Kalyan quizzed again
City police questioned Telugu film producer C Kalyan for the second consecutive day today in the case related to the killing of faction leader Maddelacheruvu Suri. Kalyan appeared before the Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths today afternoon and he was reportedly grilled for nearly four hours. Kalyan was questioned about his links with Suri and the prime suspect in Suri’s killing, Bhanu Kiran alias Bhanu. CCS sleuths sought to know whether Bhanu or Suri had invested money in his films.
Sources said Suri invested money in some of the films produced by Kalyan which bombed at the box-office. There were also reports that differences cropped up between Suri and Kalyan in the recent past following the poor showing of some of the films produced by Kalyan.