Date:11/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/11/stories/2008111150020100.htm

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Moddu Seenu’s wife seeks another post-mortem

Special Correspondent

— Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

DEEP ANGUISH: Lakshmi Rajyam, wife of Moddu Seenu, and relatives block the State highway placing the body across the road at Challagundla on Monday.

CHALLAGUNDLA (GUNTUR DT.): The body of Moddu Seenu, the second accused in the murder of TDP leader Paritala Ravi, arrived here amid high drama as his wife Julakanti Lakshmi Rajyam and other relatives staged a dharna on the Narketpalli-Addanki highway demanding another post-mortem in their presence. Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, Guntur district unit, extended its support and helped her approach the High Court through a Hyderabad-based lawyer V. Raghunadh, with a petition seeking a re-post-mortem. Similar petitions were also faxed to Anantapur Superintendent of Police and others.

“As video-recorded post-mortem was not essential we were asked to immediately take away the body after signing the registers that post-mortem was conducted to our satisfaction. Otherwise, they threatened to delay handing over the body,” said Seenu’s brother, Pulla Reddy and mother Rama Kotamma.

Traffic came to a halt for two-and-a-half hours on the highway as Ms. Lakshmi Rajyam refused to allow the body to be taken to her house registering her protest at the jail authorities not informing her about the death. The dharna which began much before the body arrived ended only when the police pacified the relatives.

She alleged that her husband was poisoned before being killed with a dumb-bell. “There are several other injuries on the head and arms, which point to a different story on what happened in the cell on Sunday morning,” she added. Meanwhile, Home Minister K. Jana Reddy ordered a second post-mortem on Moddu Seenu in Guntur. An order to this effect was communicated to Guntur SP Mahesh Chandra Laddha provided Ms. Lakshmi Rajyam made a written request.

The AP State Human Rights Commission on Monday ordered the Director-General of Prisons to fax a report by November 12 on the ‘gruesome’ murder.