Case filed against entire village

By Our Staff Reporter

KURNOOL, MAY 2. The police registered a case on the charge of culpable homicide in connection with the murder of a hired assassin and two of his associates by villagers at Venkayapalli under Kurnool rural police station limits on Tuesday night.

The residents of the entire village figured as accused since the police could not immediately identify the persons responsible for the murder. The Deputy SP, Mr. V. Satyanarayana, said the issue of right to private defence (RPD) was also being examined as claimed by the villagers because the entire village, mainly women, owned up the offence.

The Deputy SP said the incidents preceding the murder were being examined to establish whether the gang had provoked the villagers to resort to such a macabre incident.

According to the police, the hired assassin, Boya Venkateswarlu, his wife, Padmavathi, their 12-year-old daughter and an associate, P. Nagaraju, went to the Yellamma temple in the autorickshaw of Nayakulu, resident of Kallur Estate in Kurnool town. The gang picked up a quarrel with the temple priest and assaulted him demanding a share in the proceeds as per the `previous arrangement.'

The gang also terrorised people at the temple and were on their return journey when the villagers, including women, attacked and killed the hired assassin, Venkateswarlu, and the autorickshaw driver, Nayakulu on the spot. Nagaraju, who sustained injuries, died in hospital late in the night. The mob spared Venkateswarlu's wife, Padmavathi, and their daughter.

The mob did not disperse immediately after the murder, but stayed on till the police arrived there. They confessed to the police that they had carried out the murders in order to free the village from the tormentors. The Deputy SP said a hired assassin sheet was pending against Venkateswarlu in the rural police station. He figured as accused in two murder cases and four other serious offences. However, his involvement was suspected in 10 other murder cases in which he did not figure as accused.

Women alleged that the deceased had abused many women of the village sexually but they did not make an issue of it fearing domestic disharmony. Many women who were away from the village for firewood collection fell prey to the gang led by Venkateswarlu. The Deputy SP said the initial inquiry revealed that yesterday's murders were not premeditated but the result of a spontaneous outburst of public anger. Yet, the deaths could not be taken casually.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Next     : HC order against fast track courts stayed