Hyderabad: A court in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing in jail a key accused in the murder of former state minister Paritala Ravi.
Om Prakash, already facing cases of triple murder and dacoities, was handed down the life term by the fourth additional sessions court in Anantapur.
The ruling came exactly two years after Om Prakash brutally murdered Julakanti Srinivasa Reddy alias Moddu Seenu in Anantapur district jail.
Om Prakash hit Seenu on the head with dumbbells (used for physical exercises) and an iron rod resulting in Seenu's death. He also pierced an iron rod in eyes and cut off the ears of the victim.
He later told police that he killed Seenu as he had switched off the light in the cell though he was busy writing the 'Rama koti' (writing the name of Lord Ram).
The incident, dismissed by the government as a clash between two prisoners, gave a new twist to Paritala Ravi's murder and the factional violence in Rayalseema region.
The main opposition Telugu Desam Party alleged that Congress leader Maddelacheruvu Suryanarayana Reddy alias Suri, the alleged mastermind in the Ravi murder case, got Seenu eliminated. Suri, who was lodged at the same jail, had allegedly threatened to kill Seenu if he turned an approver.
Paritala Ravi, a former minister and a notorious factional leader, was gunned down in Anantapur town on January 24, 2005. His family members and the TDP had blamed the killing on then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's son Jaganmohan Reddy and former minister J C Diwakar Reddy.
Seenu, 38, had gone underground after killing Ravi. He had also given an interview to a television channel owning responsibility for Ravi's gunning down.
He was caught under dramatic circumstances in November 2005 at a lodge in Chandanagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad. He was injured while trying to assemble an explosive device in the lodge.
The Rayalseema region, comprising Anantapur, Kadpa, Chittoor and Kurnool districts, is notorious for factional violence. Factions fighting for supremacy in villages and backed by political parties have been for several decades engaged in ugly war for supremacy.
Famous filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma's recent film 'Rakta Charitra' was based on the rivalry between the factions of Paritala Ravi and Suri.
Suri had allegedly earlier made an attempt to kill Paritala Ravi in November 1997 at Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad. Though Ravi escaped unhurt, 25 people were killed and many injured in the bomb blast.