(Rpting, with changes throughout)

Hyderabad, Dec 20 (UNI) Former MLA and Mahila Congress leader Grandhi Madhavi was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants last night.

The city police today recovered her cellphone and lifted fingerprints from the premises.

Sources said the cellphone would be an important clue to nab the culprits in the murder case.

Police suspected the involvement of Madhavi's maid Devi in the crime. She had also suffered stab injuries and was undergoing treatment in a corporate hospital. Devi was earlier sacked by Madhavi for a theft in the house and reinstated recently.

The police was also probing the possibility of the murder being a fallout of the collapse of the Kanyaka Parameshwari Cooperative bank which was started by Madhavi in 1998. She was arrested and released on bail in connection with the closure of the bank due to losses and cheating of customers.

Devi would be interrogated after she recovered from her injuries, police sources said.

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