KAKINADA: An independent candidate contesting the election from Yanam Assembly constituency, who went missing on April 1, was found lying in an unconscious state on the banks of Godavari at Samalkot road on Monday. Puducherry Assembly elections are scheduled for Tuesday. Pemmadi Durga Prasad who worked as Yanam BJP president, filed his nomination for the election as an independent as he was denied the party ticket. He was suspended from the party for entering the fray as an independent.
On April 1, he left his house at Anyam Gardens Apartment in Yanam stating that he was going on some urgent work. He did not return home till late night and his family members failed to contact him over his mobile phone. Prasad’s wife Santhi lodged a complaint with the police suspecting that her husband might have been abducted.
In her complaint, she stated that Gollapalli Ashok, another independent candidate, and some followers of former minister Malladi Krishna Rao, had called her husband several times for talks and suspected their hand in the abduction. Based on her complaint, the police summoned the suspects and questioned them. They also constituted 13 special teams to trace Prasad.
Posters seeking information about the whereabouts of the missing person were also pasted at several places in Yanam and Kakinada. Four days after he went missing, Prasad was found at Achampet Junction late Sunday night. Locals who found him in an unconscious state, called 108 ambulance and he was shifted to Kakinada Government General Hospital. The police said injuries were found on Prasad’s body and they would record his statement after his recovery as part of the probe into the ‘abduction’ case.