The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Three hacked to death, 3 hurt in bombing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 23, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Three hacked to death, 3 hurt in bombing

By Our Staff Reporter

PRATTIPADU, JUNE 22. Three persons were hacked to death and three others injured after a group of persons hurled bombs at them at Abbineniguntapalem while travelling in an autorickshaw from Prattipadu to Vangipuram in Pedanandipadu mandal of Guntur district on Tuesday.

Accused in a double murder case at Chintalapudi last year, the three were returning from Lalapeta police station in Guntur after signing the daily attendance register as per the norms of the conditional bail they were granted, when four persons hurled 15 bombs at them near the church at ABG Palem.

When the autorickshaw did not stop a jeep from the opposite direction dashed against it at 11.45 pm making way for the assaulters hiding in the nearby bush to pull out the three persons identified as Sodha Samudraiah, 42, Sodha Venkateswarlu, 37, and Batchu Srinivasa Rao, 25, and hack them to death with daggers.

While the autorickshaw driver, Nadendla Subba Rao, 30, was seriously injured in the bombing, the DEPEP Assistant Engineer, Gattapalli Mosha, 51, and Gali Venkaiah, 55, received bleeding injuries due to the splinters from the bombs. All of them were being treated in the Government General Hospital at Guntur and were out of danger.

Mr. Mosha said that he could see only four assailants, but probably others were also present in the vicinity.

Hailing from the Vellaluru village in Ponnur mandal, the Sodha and Somarautu families, belonging to the same community, had a running feud over a tank in the field and four persons were killed in three cases of violence in the past one year from either side and in this retaliatory move three of one group were killed.

Some kit bags containing country bombs wrapped in cotton were seen at the place of attack along with a few pairs of slippers of the assailants.

The situation was tense in Vellaluru and police forces had been deployed there to maintain law and order.

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