ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

AP legislator held in murder case

Ch Ratnakumari, member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly from Vijayawada (East), and three of her followers were arrested today in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a 50-year-old man yesterday.

Fifth Metropolitan Magistrate K B Narsimhalu remanded Ratnakumari, an associate member of the Telugu Desam Party, and her three supporters -- Sathyanarayana alias Sathyam, Nageswara Rao alias Nani, and Sasikanth alias Chandy -- to police custody and asked the police to produce them before him tomorrow morning.

The magistrate turned down Ratnakumari's petition for medical treatment for ulcer and chest pain since she is not in his custody and directed her to approach the station house officer in this regard.

Vijayawada Police Commissioner Sudeep Lakhtakia told reporters that the post-mortem report of Kilani Ranga Rao's body was awaited.

A case has been registered against the MLA and her followers under sections 365 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 302 (murder) read with section 24 (criminal act with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Ranga Rao, a rickshaw manufacturer, was found murdered on the verandah of the 'Ratnakumari Youth Office' after her supporters had abducted him in a car following a quarrel over money matters.

G Eshwar Rao, an associate of Ranga Rao, had complained that supporters of Ratnakumari had taken them in a car to her house and beaten them up.

Eshwar Rao had managed to escape. But when he returned to the spot with Ranga Rao's wife, he found the body on the verandah of the house opposite the MLA's house, which is also allegedly owned by her.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in Hanumanpet area of the town as All-India Trade Union Congress activists took the body of Ranga Rao, a member of the Vijayawada Rickshaw Body Builders Association affiliated to the AITUC, in a procession from the University General Hospital to his house.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report