MULUGU: Six members of the banned CPI(Maoist) party killed a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader Maduri Bhimeswara Rao by stabbing him in front of his family members around Saturday midnight, at Alubaka village in Venkatapuram mandal of Mulugu district.
Sources said that the six armed maoists barged into the TRS leader's house and dragged him out.
The distraught family members pleaded the Maoists to leave him but their cries were not heeded to. Later, the leader was stabbed to death in front of his family members.
According to the police, the Maoists left a letter at the scene of incident.
Bhimeswara Rao owned a pesticide company in the village. In their letter, the Maoists alleged that that he was cheating the farmers and the pesticides were being sold with at high costs to the villagers.
Bhimeswara Rao is survived by his wife and three children.
It is learned that a combing operation was carried out by the police due to the spate of recent Maoist activities in Asifabad and Khammam districts.
Police believe that the TRS leader was murdered by the Maoists to make their presence felt in the village.
Earlier, DGP and CRPF officials had visited Venkatapuram and conducted a high level meeting of senior police officials of Maoist-affected areas in Telangana, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh which was held at the Wajedu - Venkatapuram CRPF camp.
Speaking to media, Mulugu district Superintendent of Police (SP) Sangramsingh G Patil said that since past few days the Maoists were demanding money as party fund from Bhimeswara Rao but he refused to fund the Maoists.
Six armed Maoists reached his house on Saturday around midnight and killed him.
The SP added that those who are refusing to provide party funds to the Maoists, are being killed in the name of being police informers.
Bhineswara Rao's body has been shifted for post mortem to the Venkatapuram primary health center. A case has been registered and investigation is on, said Patil.
With this incident, alert has been sounded in agency areas of Mulugu district. The police tightened the security of public representatives in the erstwhile Warangal district on Sunday.