India minister's murder accused killed in jail

Hyderabad: The factional violence in Andhra Pradesh's Rayalseema region raised its ugly head again as a man accused of murdering former state minister Paritala Ravi was allegedly killed by another prisoner in Anantapur district jail on Sunday.

Julakanti Srinivasa Reddy alias Moddu Seenu died on the spot during a clash with an undertrial around 4.30am, police said.

Om Prakash, involved in some murder cases, hit Seenu on the head with dumbells and an iron rod, resulting in his death.

The incident has shocked the authorities and given a new twist to Ravi's murder and the factional violence in the Rayalseema region.

While the government tried to dismiss it as a clash between two prisoners, the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) saw in it a conspiracy by the Congress government to eliminate evidence in Ravi's case to shield chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy's son YS Jaganmohan Reddy and minister for panchayat raj JC Diwakar Reddy.

Family members of Seenu alleged that the murder was pre-planned as he was willing to turn an approver in the case.

They also claimed that Congress leader Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddela Cheruvu Suri, the alleged mastermind in the Ravi murder case, got Seenu eliminated. Ravi, a former minister and a notorious factional leader, was gunned down in Anantapur on January 24, 2005.

The Rayalseema region comprising Anantapur, Kadpa, Chittoor and Kurnool is notorious for factional violence.

Factions fighting for supremacy in villages and backed by political parties have been engaged in bloody fighting for several decades.