Hyderabad: Left wing extremists of the outlawed CPI-Maoist have shot dead a leader of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti days after he was abducted from his home in Bhdradari Kothgudem district of Telangana.

A group of armed Maoists had abducted Nalluri Srinivas Rao, former member of Mandal Praja Parishad, on July 8 from his home in Besta Kottur village after beating up his family members. Alleging that the leader was working as a police informer and trying to eliminate the Maoist organisation in the area, they dragged him across the border to Chhattisgarh district. His bullet ridden body was found in Sukna district of Chhattisgarh.

Claiming the responsibility for the cold blooded murder Maoist leader Sharda said in a letter that Srinivas Rao was trying to recruit tribals as police informers and was also involved in attempts to grab 70 acres of tribal land.

The body was found even as his family members and other people of the area were searching for him since his abduction and had issued an appeal to the Maoists to release him. The incident has come as a shock to the TRS ranks as well as the ordinary people as Maoists struck in the area after a long lull.

District superintendent of police Sunil Dutt denied the Maoist claim that Srinivas was working as a police informer. “He was a farmer and had nothing to do with the police,” he said calling it a brutal act by the Maoist.

Maoists were targeting and harassing the businessmen, farmers and contractors to extort money and creating a reign of terror in the tribal area, he added.