A party thrown by YSR Congress Party corporator and real estate agent Kampara Ramesh for his friends last night ended on a rather grisly note.
Ramesh was murdered by a rival, Gurajana Chinna, early this morning, on the outskirts of East Godavari district's Kakinada, after the two reportedly came to blows following an altercation over a financial matter.
Chinna killed the 47-year-old corporator of the 9th Ward of the Kakinada Municipal Corporation by repeatedly running him over with a car. After the corporator's friends rushed him to a hospital nearby, he was declared dead.
Commenting on the matter, the East Godavari SP office said, "After Mr Ramesh and his rival, Mr Chinna, got into an argument, Mr Ramesh did not allow the latter to leave the place without resolving the matter. This is what escalated their conflict, and led to the unfortunate event. However, we believe that the real root of the accused's actions lies in his old rivalry with the corporator. We are investigating the matter further. For now, we have shifted the body to the Kakinada Government General Hospital for post-mortem."
The police also confirmed that the prime accused, Chinna, was absconding. He had reportedly run away with his family by Friday morning.
There seems to have been a sudden rise in such crimes - a similar incident also took place in Jangaon, 85 kilometres away from Hyderabad, some days ago. TDP leader and former municipal councillor Puli Swamy was
hacked to death by two unknown assailants when he stepped out for a walk on the morning of January 28.