The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday filed the charge-sheet in connection with the murder of Telugu Desam Party legislator Paritala Ravi in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur town on January 24.
CBI Deputy Superintendent of Police Vijay Kumar filed the charge-sheet, which has named 13 accused, in the court of the Additional First Class Magistrate Jayaraj in Anantapur.
Julakanti Srinivas Reddy, who is absconding, has been named as one of the prime accused along with Gangula Suryanarayana, alias Suri, a convict who planned the murder from Cherlapalli central jail in Hyderabad.
Suri is undergoing a life imprisonment in connection with the Jubilee Hills car bomb blast case in Hyderabad in November 1997 in which 25 people were killed and several others injured. The attack by Suri was allegedly targeted at Ravi and former TDP legislator and filmmaker Mohan Babu to avenge the killing of his family members allegedly by Ravi. However, the two escaped unhurt.
The CBI had arrested Suri and had produced him in the Anantapur district court on March 28. He has been in judicial custody in Anantapur sub-jail since then.
He was interrogated and subjected to a lie-detector test. The judicial custody of Suri and other accused has been extended till May 9.
The charge-sheet gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy’s son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, Panchayat Raj Minister J C Diwakar Reddy, Rayalaseema Inspector General of Police R P Meena and Gangula Bhanumathi, wife of Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy, who is accused of masterminding the murder.
The CBI had interrogated the four, as their names figured as suspects in the first information report filed by Paritala Ravi’s father-in-law Kondanna. All the four accused have denied any role in the murder. Though the CBI has arrested 16 suspects, the names of three do not figure in the charge-sheet.
By Syed Amin Jafri
