Three held for shooting sarpanch in Srikakulam

Srikakulam: The Srikakulam police arrested three persons for opening fire at the Ramachandrapuram sarpanch Golivi Venkataramana Murty. The incident took place under the One Town police limits of Srikakulam town on 18 January. Mr. Murty escaped with a minor injury.

The superintendent of Srikakulam police, Amit Bardar, identified the accused persons as Salini, Giri, and Mohit. Salini is from Uttar Pradesh but had married a local man and had settled down in Srikakulam town years ago. The other accused, Giri, is from Uttar Pradesh while Mohit is from Madhya Pradesh. The gang had laid a honeytrap and planned to extract money from the sarpanch. They had demanded Rs. 10 lakh but after negotiations, they had agreed on Rs. 2 lakh.

According to the agreement, they visited the sarpanch on 18 January at about 9 p.m to get the money. However, Giri suddenly opened fire at the sarpanch with his unlicensed country-made pistol. The sarpanch escaped with a minor injury and rushed to the police station to lodge a complaint, the SP said.

Police sources said Salini and Mr. Murty had deleted all WhatsApp messages that indicated a brief affair between the two.

Based on mobile data, all the three were taken into custody on Saturday, the SP said. Cases were registered against the three under various sections of the IPC and the Arms Act 1959 at the One Town police station. The police also seized the pistol, eight rounds of live 7.65 mm cartridges, and an empty cartridge.