DCC chief Rajender named A4 in the case

​Warangal Urban: In a controversial twist to the murder of TRS corporator Anisetti Murali, the Hanamkonda police on Saturday named the District Congress Committee president Naini Rajender Reddy in the case.

The police in their remand report have named the district Congress president as A4 (accused no 4), and two more politicians Pothula Sriman and Kanuganti Shekhar as A5 and A6. With this, the murder case has taken the colour of a political controversy.

Expressing serious anguish over the naming of their party leader in the case, City Congress president Katla Srinivas Rao alleged that the the police had named Rajender Reddy under the influence of the ruling party leaders. “It is a new tradition by the ruling party to bully their political opponents. Rajender Reddy in his 33 years of political life has no case against him. It is a political conspiracy to malign his name,” he said.

Speaking to The Hans India, Rajender Reddy denied his role in the killing of Murali and said he doesn’t resort to such criminal politics. “Murali is one of my friends and I am shocked at his death,” he said. “Many a time, the ruling party leaders asked me to join the TRS. Since I refused their offer, they tried to put pressure.

Naming me in the case is another such tactic employed by the TRS,” he added.He informed that he would meet his party leadership in Hyderabad and the Governor to apprise them about the developments. It may be noted that Rajender Reddy has been planning to contest from the Warangal (West) Assembly seat and now engaged in doing ground work for the purpose.

Hanamkonda Circle Inspector Sampath Rao said those arrested by the police in the case, during their confession, revealed the names of Rajender Reddy and two others. “We are investigating the matter,” he added.

It is learnt that the police have booked a case against 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and planning to take Rajender Reddy and others into custody while they are trying to obtain anticipatory bail.

It may be noted that the main accused B Vikram, his associates M Varun Babu and R Chinranjeevi, surrendered to the police soon after killing Murali. According to the remand report, Vikram hatched the plan along with A2 to A6 to eliminate Anisetti Murali as he was involved in the murder of B Janardhan, father of Vikram in 1992.

The report further stated that Rajender Reddy had a rivalry with Murali and contacted Vikram a few times asking him to eliminate Murali while Sriman in March 2017 supplied hunting sickles to him.