RTI Activist Murder Accused Had Hired Same Gang to Kill Sister-in-law Last Year

A 70-year-old right-to-information (RTI) activist was killed in Jangaon district of Telangana in an apparent fallout of a land issue. Police have arrested three persons for kidnapping and killing the retired Mandal Parishad Development Officer (MPDO).

According to the police, victim Nalla Ramakrishnaiah was first strangled to death with the help of a towel and then the killers dumped the body in a quarry pond near a stone crusher in Champak Hills area of Jungaon district. The incident came to light on Sunday when his body was found floating in the water-filled quarry, three days after he went missing.

G. Anjaiah, the prime accused, had a dispute with Ramakrishnaiah and nursed a grudge over the latter complaining against him to government officials over a land issue, police said. He allegedly hired a contract killing gang to eliminate him, a police official said.

The gang kidnapped Ramakrishnaiah in a car at Pochannapeta on June 15 and forcibly took him to an isolated area where they killed him. Police apprehended Anjaiah and two contract killers D. Srikanth and Shivarathri Basha alias Bhaskar while based on their interrogation, efforts are on to track others absconding accused D. Thirupati and D. Raju.

Before leaving home, Ramakrishnaiah had reportedly told his son Ashok that he was going to file a complaint with the Bachannapet police in this regard. Ashok had earlier filed a missing complaint.

Ramakrishnaiah had filed RTI applications, civil suits in the court and had also approached Human Rights Commission against Anjaiah for cancellation of land deeds (pattas) pertaining to a government-assigned land measuring 8.04 acre in Pochannapet village, which the latter had occupied illegally by misleading the concerned officials.

Anjaiah, husband of a local Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) member belonging to the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), took it as personal enmity and hatched a plan to eliminate Ramakrishnaiah. He engaged 'supari' (contract) killers for the job, police said.

Anjaiah contacted Tirupati and offered him to pay Rs 8 lakh for eliminating Ramakrishnaiah. Tirupati agreed to do the job and took an advance amount of Rs 50,000 from Anjaiah. Speaking to the media, Warangal Commissioner of Police A.V. Ranganath said that the arrested people have confessed to the crime.

"The task force along with the Bachannapet police were able to trace the accused within an hour of the recovery of the dead body. Anjaiah also revealed that he had hired the same gang to kill his sister-in-law, Subhadra, on October 20, 2022, over another land dispute," the commissioner informed.