A day after the shooting of Araku Valley MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and ex-MLA Siveri Soma, the Andhra Pradesh police released the pictures of the three naxals who are suspected to be have been part of the ambush and murder. The Vishakapattinam District Police have released the pictures of CPI (Maoist) members Jalamuri Srinu Babu alias Sunil alias Rainu, Kameshwari alias Swaroopa alias Ricky, and Venkata Ravi Chaitanya aka Aruna. Araku MLA Sarveswara Rao and Siveri Soma were gunned down in Livitiput village, about 125 km from the coastal city of Visakhapatnam when they were reportedly returning after attending a party function. They were shot from point-blank range.
According to the district police, Jalamuri Srinu Babu hails from the Debapalem village, Kameshwari from Bhimavaram town and Venkata Ravi Chaitanya from Karakvani Palem.
Speaking to TNM, Visakhapatnam Rural SP Rahul Dev Sharma said, "The search operations are on in the area. We are yet to catch the suspects.”
According to the Times of India, as part of a 2016 poster campaign by the police for people to disclose the whereabouts of top Naxals, Venkata Ravi Chaitanya aka Aruna’s name was announced, along with her husband and east division secretary Chalapati alias Kailasam. Aruna was then deputy to Koraput-Srikakulam division committee secretary Daya.
Livitiput village, close to the Odisha border, is where the Nandapur Area committee, led by Aruna, is still active, reported the Times of India.
Following the killings, police are on high alert in Andhra-Odisha border area and public representatives have been advised not to visit interior villages.
Both Rao and Soma had received threats from Maoists in the past. Public representatives in the region were alerted by the police to be cautious while moving into the interior villages in view of the formation week celebrations of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) till September 27.
In Sunday, Director General of Police Ch. Srikanth said that the crime occurred between noon and 1 pm. He said that the Naxals snatched the weapons from the two leaders' security guards before sending them away. In the evening, supporters of the two leaders staged a protest in front of the police stations, and said that the police did not provide adequate security to the two leaders. They blamed the police saying it was due to their failure that both leaders were dead. The Araku and Dumbriguda police stations were then vandalised, and multiple things were set ablaze.