JOIN USParitala's widow says Jagan was behind hubby's killing
Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, aleady in judicial custody in a disproportionate assets case, has now been accused of hatching a plot to eliminate TDP leader Paritala Ravindra in 2005.
The wife of the slain TDP leader, Paritala Sunitha, has taken up the cudgels againt Jagan. The Raptadu MLA has alleged that Jagan had hatched a conspiracy with Maddelacheruvu Suri and supplied bullet-proof jackets to sharp shooters Moddu Seenu and his gang to eliminate her husband, a Anantapur strongman.
Sunitha, who sat near Ambedkar statue on Wednesday in Anantapur in protest, was taken into custody by the police. She was kept under house arrest. She demanded a thorough investigation into Jagan’s alleged role in the sensational murder case. TDP president Chandrababu Naidu spoke to Sunitha over phone. He tried to persuade her not to take any action because it is an emotional issue for TDP cadre in the faction ridden Anantapur district.
Ravindra was murdered at the TDP’s Anantapur district office on January 24, 2005. Although Jagan was named as one of the accused in the murder, the CBI had then given him a clean-chit. The TDP alleged that former chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s influence on the investigation agency saved Jagan.
“YSR family hailed CBI calling it a neutral agency when it gave a clean chit to Jagan in Paritala case. How could Jagan and Co. allege now that CBI is working at the behest of the Congress?” asked CM Kiran Kumar Reddy, countering allegations of YS Vijayamma after Jagan’s arrest in the asset case.
Paritala Ravindra and another party activist were gunned down by unidentified assailants when they were coming out of the party office after attending a general body meeting. The TDP leader had died on the spot as assailants fired seven rounds at him from close range.
Provide evidence
Sunitha claims to have proof that Jagan supplied the ammunition and provided logistic support to the assassins. “I will provide the evidence to the investigation agency, if the CBI looks into Jagan’s involvement by reviving the case now,” she said in Penukonda.
Surprisingly, all those involved in Ravi’s cold-blooded murder were either murdered or died under mysterious circumstances. In 2001, theAnantapur district police unearthed a conspiracy to liquidate Penukonda legislator, Paritala Ravindra. The plot was allegedly masterminded by Maddelacheruvu Suryanarayana Reddy alias Suri, who was then serving life imprisonment in the 1998 Jubilee Hills car bomb blast case, also aimed at Paritala.
The police have also allegedly found Jaganmohan to be involved in the plot to kill Pulivendula Agriculture Market Committee chairman Parthasarathi Reddy of the TDP, the main accused in the murder of YS Raja Reddy, father of Rajasekhar Reddy.
Five persons allegedly involved in the conspiracy were arrested by the police. The four were members of the CPI (ML) Red Star, a pseudo-naxalite group and close associate of Jaganmohan Reddy, Mangali Danthuluri Krishna of Pulivendula town.