Tense atmosphere at mortuary over APCLC activist's killing

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, NOV. 24. A surcharged atmosphere prevailed around the Osmania Hospital mortuary with hundreds of civil liberties activists staging a demonstration in protest against the killing of T.Purushotham, joint secretary of the A.P. Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), on Friday afternoon.

The activists who repeatedly raised anti-Government slogans holding the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, and the DGP, Mr. H.J. Dora, responsible for the murder, later accompanied the body of Purushotham to his house in Madhurapuri colony. A team of forensic experts had earlier conducted autopsy on the body.

Going by the militant mood of the processionists, the police maintained a safe distance, while plainclothes policemen tried to mingle with the crowds trying to find out where the body was being taken. Police were on extra alert, after word spread that the body was to be taken in a procession to the Secretariat. However, the procession went upto Siddiamber Bazar mosque and later proceeded to Madhurapuri colony. By evening, the body was taken to his native village near Gadwal in Mahbubnagar district. The funeral would be held on Saturday.

Even as fiery speeches denouncing the State Government were made at the impromptu meeting in front of the mortuary, artistes from the Telangana Kala Samithi interspersed the meeting with ballads and paid tributes to the slain APCLC leader. The civil liberties leaders stuck to their argument and blamed the State Government and the police for acting in cahoots with `hired underground goons' and conspiring to eliminate the APCLC activists.

Mr. Varavara Rao and Ms. Ratnamala described the killing of Purushottam as a deliberate attempt by the police to stifle the voices of those demanding their rights. "The Chief Minister, Mr. N.Chandrababu Naidu had always wanted to annihilate those raising voice against the State," said Ms. Ratnamala.

Meanwhile, the APCLC in a statement demanded a judicial enquiry into the killing of Purushottam by a sitting judge of High Court. Another statement signed by representatives of 40 different civil liberties organisations charged the police of conniving with hired killers and killing the APCLC leader and advocate in a dastardly fashion.

In another development, the revolutionary poet, Mr. Varavara Rao received a threatening telephone call at his house around 4 p.m. today. The poet who was not feeling well left the funeral procession along with Baby Swetcha, daughter of the slain leader, to his apartment near Malakpet crossroads. Minutes later, someone called up his house and began hurling challenges and threats to kill him, he said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Andhra Bank branch opened at Secretariat
Next     : Krishna to lead delegation to Delhi