8 arrested for murder of Guntur TDP leader

Guntur: The Guntur rural police arrested eight persons on Friday in connection with the brutal murder of Gundlapadu village Telugu Desam Party president Thota Chandraiah who was killed near his residence on 13 January. The arrests were made within 24 hours of the incident.

Guntur Rural superintendent of police Vishal Gunni said the main accused, Chinta Siva Ramayya, and the victim, Chandraiah, lived in the same area. "For the last three years, the two had some conflicts related to a cement road," the SP added.

Chinta Siva Ramayya is a mandal-level public representative and reportedly belongs to the ruling YSR Congress Party. The other accused are E. Kotaiah, S. Raghurama Rao, S. Ramakoteswara Rao, Chinta Srinivas Rao, Thota Anjaneyulu, Thota Shivanarayana, and Chinta Adinarayana.

Siva Ramayya along with the others killed Chandraiah and absconded. The rural police had formed four special teams to arrest the accused.

Chandraiah was on his way to his field on Thursday when some people pounced on him and hit him with sticks and bricks, killing him on the spot. The SP had said the police would not hesitate to take stringent action against those who disturb the peace at the Palnadu area.

Gundlapadu village Telugu Desam Party president Thota Chandraiah was brutally murdered near his residence on Thursday.

Tension prevailed in the village as TDP activists prevented the police from shifting Chandraiah's body to the Government General Hospital (GGH) for post-mortem, insisting that the body not be moved till Julakanti Brahma Reddy came to the village. However, the police pacified them and shifted the body to the government hospital in Macherla.

Meanwhile, TDP national president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, party state president K. Atchannaidu, former ministers Prathipati Pulla Rao, Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao, and Nakka Ananda Babu, and former MLAs Yarapathineni Srinivasa Rao, Kuliphalla Narendra, and T. Shrevan Kumar visited Macherla and paid tributes to the slain TDP leader and consoled the bereaved family.