Telangana corporator hacked to death at home over personal enmity

In a sensational murder, TRS corporator Anisetti Murali was brutally stabbed to death by his rivals at his house in Telangana's Hanamkonda city on Thursday.

The Hindu reported that the killers were identified as Vikram and Viplav, who were sons of Congress councillor Janardhan, who was murdered in 1991, with Murali being one of the accused in that murder case.

Reports add that six people rushed into Murali's residence and  attacked him with sickles. They slashed him repeatedly, leaving him dead on the spot. However, they did not harm any other family member.

The incident occurred at around 6pm on Thursday evening.

The police said that Janardhan's sons were waiting to eliminate Murali, and surrendered at the Hanamkonda police station, soon after the murder. 

Speaking to reporters, Warangal Commissioner of Police, G Sudheer Babu confirmed that the murder was on personal grounds. "It was not a political murder. The reason behind the murder was purely personal enmity," he said.

"It is not a political murder nor any business rivalry...the corporator was an accused in a case of murder of one Janardhan in 1991. He was today attacked and killed in retaliation," a senior police official reiterated to PTI.

The Times of India reported that hundreds of people rushed to Murali's residence, as news of the killing spread, even as the police beefed up security, and shifted his body to the MGM Hospital for a post mortem. 

Many shops had downed shutters in the area, and the police ensured that crowds did not gather together on the streets, the TOI report adds. 

Murali was part of the TDP till recently, and had switched over to the TRS party during the recent municipal elections in Warangal, where he contested and won from the 44th Division of the Greater Warangal Corporation.