Landlord shot dead by naxals

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, JULY 21. Naxalites, suspected to belong to the People's War, shot dead a landlord belonging to Kalagalla village of Kudair mandal in the wee hours of Saturday. His family has been the target of PW naxalites for long.

According to the police, three naxalites, all aged below 20 years, went to the residence of Mr. Kalagalla Gopal Reddy (37), son of K.Narayana Reddy, a noted landlord, in R.K.Nagar extension area. He was reading a newspaper and they shot about eight rounds at him from the point blank range from outside the compound wall.

Two of the assailants walked away after accomplishing their task while the third escaped on a bicycle. Meanwhile, Mr. Gopal Reddy collapsed in a pool of blood and was rushed to the general hospital immediately by his family members. But the doctors declared him brought dead. He bore bullet injuries on the chest, stomach, hands and legs.

The family of Narayana Reddy has been staying in the area for the last six years due to the threat from naxalites. They had a long- standing tiff with the People's War naxalites for more than a decade. The naxalites had distributed about 30 acres of land belonging to the landlord to the peasants by occupying it in 1996.

The landlord then filed cases against the militants for forcible distribution of his land. Later, when the naxalites demanded Rs. 1 lakh in cash from the family, the police arrested one key militant before the amount was handed over to them. The naxalites had then alleged that it was a ploy hatched by the landlord.

In protest against the arrest of their key militant, Gopi Venkatesh, in 1996, the naxalites blasted the house and torched a tractor of the landlord in Kalagalla. They also damaged five agriculture motor pumpsets. Since then the landlord has been receiving threats regularly from the naxal outfit.

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Section  : Southern States
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