Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has questioned the security apparatus of the state, in the aftermath of the murder of Chittoor mayor K. Anuradha and her husband Mohan, both of whom were repeatedly shot at in the mayor’s official chamber on Tuesday.
“This is a total failure of the intelligence department and the police and they are responsible for the loss of the lives of the mayor and her husband. If the murderers could spend about 15 minutes after the murder and then escape, it shows the collapse of the security system in the city,” Naidu said after inspecting the crime spot on Wednesday. Both Anuradha and Mohan were close to Naidu’s son Lokesh. Family feud is being suspected to be the trigger for the murder.
As many as 12 bullets were showered on the couple by five hired criminals in the municipal corporation office, leaving Anuradha dead on the spot. Mohan succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
Incidentally, Naidu hails from Chittoor and he had spent much of his early political life there. Chittoor is notorious for hired killers.
The police has so far arrested two, Manjunath and Venkata Chalam, of the five shooters who were allegedly hired by the mayor’s nephew Chandrasekhar alias Chintoo. The two persons have admitted to their crime. They have told the police that three more persons including Chintoo himself participated in the killing. A hunt is on to arrest the killers, Chittoor SP Srinivas told The Sunday Guardian.
Mohan was an active Telegu Desam Party leader. Anuradha was elected to the mayor’s post, which was reserved for OBC women. The main accused, Chintoo is said to have been loyal to Anuradha, before he started nursing a grudge against her for not supporting him financially.
CM Naidu was furious when he learnt that the arrested persons had actually hatched the murder conspiracy one year before and that they had visited the mayor’s office several times in the past. Naidu is likely to shuffle IPS officers in the intelligence wing, sources said.