JANGAON: In a shocking incident that unfolded three days ago, a retired Mandal Parishad Development Officer (MPDO) and Right to Information (RTI) activist was brutally murdered. The incident came to light on Sunday when the body of the victim, identified as 70-year-old Nalla Ramakrishnaiah from Pochannapet village of Bachannapet mandal, was discovered in a pond near a stone crusher unit at the Champak Hills in Jangaon town.
According to the police, Ramakrishnaiah was kidnapped and killed by a ‘supari’ gang. The accused have been identified as G Anjaiah, D Srikanth, and Shivarathri Basha alias Bhaskar. Two other accused, D Thirupati and D Raju, are absconding. The police have seized Rs 15,000 in cash, three mobile phones, and a car from their possession.Warangal Commissioner of Police (CP) AV Ranganath, while addressing the media, said that the arrested persons confessed to the crime during an interrogation.
It was revealed that Ramakrishnaiah had filed an RTI application and approached the Human Rights Commission challenging the allocation of government-assigned land, measuring 8.04 acres, in Pochannapet village. This land was occupied by G Anjaiah, husband of a ZPTC member belonging to the ruling party. Anjaiah had allegedly misled officials and acquired land pattas.
Anjaiah, angry with Ramakrishnaiah’s actions, had hired a supari gang to eliminate him. The retired MPDO had previously filed a complaint in court seeking the cancellation of the land pattas. On June 15, Anjaiah allegedly hired the four hired killers for Rs 8 lakh to carry out the killing and paid Rs 2.5 lakh as advance.
The supari gang abducted Ramakrishnaiah on June 15 from the outskirts of Pochannapet village. They forcibly took him in a hired car to an isolated location, where they strangled him with a towel.After confirming that he was dead, they disposed of his body at a stone crusher unit in the Champak Hills area. Following the murder, the gang informed Anjaiah and demanded the remaining payment.
An investigation into Ramakrishnaiah’s disappearance was initiated based on a ‘missing’ complaint filed by his son, Ashok, at the Bachannapet police station. Locals alerted the police about a body found in the water.
The police and forensic teams arrived at the scene, recovered the body, and sent it for postmortem at the Jangaon government hospital. The culprits were apprehended within an hour by the task force and Bachannapet police, according to Commissioner Ranganath.
During the interrogation, Anjaiah confessed to his involvement in the crime and also revealed that he hired the same supari gang to kill his sister-in-law, Subhadra, on October 20, 2022, over a land dispute. A month after Subhadra’s death, her relatives raised suspicions and filed a complaint against Anjaiah.