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Muddu Seenu, the prime accused in the murder of Telulgu Desam Party legislator Paritvala Ravindra, was brutally murdered in the Anantapur district jail in the wee hours of Sunday by another inmate. While Andhra Pradesh Home Minister K Jana Reddy described the murder a result of a fight between two undertrials locked in the same barrack, the opposition has alleged that Julakunti Srinivas Reddy alias Muddu Seenu's murder was a political conspiracy that involved politicians of the ruling Congress party.
Muddu Seenu had recently expressed his willingness to turn an approver in the murder case of Ravindra, who was killed in Anantapur in 2005.
TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu held the YS Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress government responsible for the murder, alleging that the party was trying to shield the involvement of senior minister J C Diwakar Reddy and the CM's son Jaganmohan Reddy. However, Seenu's family has alleged that M Surayanarayana Reddy alias Suri, a co accused in the Ravindra murder, is behind his killing.
Prison official Varda Reddy said that on Saturday night, Seenu had gotten into a fight with another inmate Omprakash, but the guards managed to separate them.
"At around 4.30 am, another fight broke out between the two and Omprakash hit Seenu on the head with heavy dumbbells," he said. Seenu died on the spot.
Omprakash and four other inmates of the same barrack have been arrested in connection with the murder. Suryanarayana Reddy was locked in another barrack in the same block of the jail.
Chandrababu Naidu claims that Seenu was killed to prevent him from revealing the names of the politicians involved in Ravindra's murder.
Naidu pointed out that another criminal Aziz Reddy, who had supplied arms to Seenu, was also killed by the police in Hyderabad. "Seenu's murder is part of the same plot. Even an undertrial in a CBI case is not safe in the jail. The YSR government is involved in the murder," he alleged.
On the other hand, Seenu's mother Ramakotamma has accused Congress leader J C Diwakar Reddy and Jaganmohan Reddy of being responsible for her son's death.
"The fight between Muddu Seenu and Omprakash had been going on for the last ten days, but the jail staff did not separate them," she said.
According to Seenu's wife Samarajya Lakshmi, her husband had told her two months ago that Suri was planning to kill him and his life was under threat.
Omprakash has several murder cases registered against him, including a triple murder in Anantapur, the police said.
Incidentally, Seenu had claimed responsibility for the murder of Paritala Ravindra during an interview to a local television channel, and he had even threatened to kill two more political leaders. When the police launched a manhunt for him, Seenu fled to Mumbai.
He was arrested under dramatic circumstances on November 17, 2005. While hiding in a building in the outskirts of Hyderabad, Seenu was caught when a bomb that he was trying to make, exploded and injured him badly.
He had recently been convicted and imprisoned for three years in the bomb blast case, while the Ravindra murder trial is still going on.
Paritala Ravindra, a controversial leader with a violent past, has a well-known rivalry with M Surayanarayana Reddy, a Congress leader, and many other politicians of Anantapur. Suryanarayana is serving a life term for a failed attempt to kill Ravindra through a car bomb blast in the mid 1990s in Hyderabad. Over 30 people were killed in the blast. It is alleged that Suryanarayana hatched the conspiracy to kill Ravindra while he was behind bars, and his henchman Seenu carried out the actual attack.