Chittoor Mayor Katari Anuradha was brutally murdered and her husband Katari Mohan, a senior TDP leader, received serious injuries when a gang of three persons made a lightning attack on the couple on the premises of Chittoor Municipal Corporation office on Tuesday at noon.

According to preliminary information, the mayor was in her chamber along with her husband. Unsuspecting gang members barged into the chamber, though some municipal staff asked them to wait. The couple were shot at and attacked with knives. The trio were said to have escaped immediately after the attack, leaving the couple in a pool of blood.

Gathering courage, the municipal officials and some TDP leaders rushed to the couple that was battling for life. Mayor Anuradha, who received severe knife injuries and bullet injuries in the head, died on the spot, while her husband Katari Mohan was shifted to the Christian Medical College Hospital at Vellore, when his condition deteriorated at General Hospital at Chittoor.

Reports said that the attackers first opened fire at the couple, before stabbing them. Before the gunmen of the couple could react from outside the chamber, the gang had escaped.

The police had deployed armed forces at vulnerable points in the town to avert any untoward incident. Two persons had surrendered to the Chittoor-I town police, but it was not clear whether they are among the attackers or had approached the police for protection in view of the volatile situation in the town

For record, Katari Mohan is the prime accused in the attempt to murder on former Chittoor MLA C.K. Jayachandra Reddy alias C.K. Babu. A decade ago, C.K. Babu escaped in the attack, while two of his gunmen were killed in the attack.

Mr. Mohan, who seriously tried for the TDP MLA ticket from Chittoor, could not succeed, but could make his spouse Katari Anuradha the Mayor and led the party to victory with a thumping majority of 36 corporators out of a total 50.

Karnataka gang

It was suspected that while three gang members, two wearing burkha, barged into the mayor chamber, four others had waited outside to make easy escape after the attack. All were believed to be from Karnataka.

The police are engaged in hectic activity dispatching special parties and closing the check posts towards Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The police were said to have recovered some lethal weapons from the spot.

Chittoor town has been notorious for group rivalries for the last three decades.

(The Hindu)