The Hindu : Front Page : Suri's murder: prime suspect still at large

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Wednesday, Jan 05, 2011
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Suri's murder: prime suspect still at large

Staff Reporter

Body taken to his village; last rites to be performed today

PHOTO: R.V.S PRASAD

LAST JOURNEY:Hundreds of people watch Suri's body being brought to Anantapur on Tuesday. —

HYDERABAD: Bhanu Kiran, prime suspect in the killing of Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddaacheruvu Suri, continued to evade police even as Bhanu's acquaintance, Giri, was taken into custody on Tuesday.

Though the driver Madhu told police that Bhanu shot Suri in the car on Monday evening, investigators suspect that Bhanu befriended other gang members and used them in executing his plan. Police were grilling Madhu, whom they detained soon after the murder, as they did not want to rule out his involvement.

Suri was shot twice from point blank range on his head from behind, said the forensic doctors led by Professor Narayana Reddy, who conducted the autopsy at the Osmania General Hospital morgue.

One bullet hit the upper part of the head on the right side fracturing upper vertebra atlas-axis. It also ‘contused' the spinal chord. The second went into his head through the right side, passing through the cerebellum. The bullets did not exit the skull. Fragments of the first bullet were collected while the second round was retrieved intact with its shape slightly altered. Doctors said the injuries led to his instant death. Suri's wife, Bhanumati, who came to the mortuary with her teenaged son Harshavardhan Reddy and maternal uncle Satyanarayana Reddy, broke down on seeing the body. Fighting back tears, she said Bhanu could have been won over by Suri's opponents. “I cannot believe that Bhanu killed him. For quite some time, Suri was supporting his family financially,” she said.

Revenue Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy, who visited the morgue, declined to answer a query on the suspected involvement of the son of a minister. “I do not know anything. I do not want to comment. We have to condemn any murder,” he added.

Staff Reporter from Anantapur adds: The district headquarters town observed a bandh amidst tight police bandobust as a mark of sympathy towards Suri. The vehicle carrying the body came in a convoy with supporters and relatives this afternoon.

It stopped awhile at the Congress Bhavan, before leaving for his native Maddalacheruvu in Dharmavaram mandal. The last rites will be performed on Wednesday at the village where a pall of gloom descended after news of his death spread.

Over 200 security personnel took positions as a precaution. Thousands of visitors poured in to pay their last respects. Superintendent of Police Manesh Kumar Sinha visited vulnerable towns, including Dharmavaram and Penukonda, to supervise law and order.

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