Raktha Charitra's 'real' hero shot dead

Bloody end

He was declared dead after almost two hours of emergency treatment in Apollo Hospitals in Jubilee hills.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner A K Khan who visited Apollo Hospital said that unidentified assailants showered five rounds of bullets on him at the Yusufguda Y junction near Navodaya Colony inside a car registered in the name of one Garapati Ratnakumar of Rangareddy district. The front seats of the car were splattered with Suri’s blood.

Suri was hit on his head and chest and fainted. The car driver brought a blood-soaked Suri to the hospital.   

Sudhir Reddy, Suri’s brother said that Suri, along with his close aid Bhanukiran and driver Madhusudan, were on their way back from Suri’s lawyer when the incident occurred. He pointed out that Suri very rarely went out to meet the lawyer.  Police beefed up security at his residence in Jubilee hills near Navodaya Colony and that of his friends and relatives in the city and Anantpur town following the attack. Suri was out on bail in the Jubilee Hills car bomb case, where he had made a futile attempt to kill Paritala Ravi by rigging a stationary car with bombs near Rama Naidu studio in the early 1990s.

Since his release Suri had made Bangalore his home and visited Hyderabad only when legalities demanded his presence. Ironically, he had gone out of his home with bare minimum security of only the driver and one gun man.

Suri’s group and that of slain TDP leader Paritala Ravi have been locked up in a fierce faction feud for over three decades after Suri’s family of seven was killed in a radio bomb by the opponents in his village of Maddelacheruvu in Anantapur district.

“Faction feud is so fierce that both men and women in these families look for a chance to kill their rivals and wait for years “said a senior police official who had worked in Anantapur for long.

Tamil actor Suriya had essayed Suri’s role in ‘Rakta-Charitra 2’. Suri had created waves at a theatre in Bangalore when he watched both the films along with nearly 200 henchmen who had bought tickets for entire three rows.

In an interview later, Suri hadcriticised his portrayal in the film as gory and far away from truth. “Ram Gopal Verma is my friend. But I think his approach is mostly a fiction and not true happening,” he had said.