
The News Minute | February 8, 2015 | 11:10 am IST
(Last updated - 2:30 pm IST)
Prominent TV9 anchor Badri is no more after he met with an accident near the Dwaraka Tirumala temple in Elluru village in West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh.
K. Veerabhadra Rao, popular as Bhadri, died on the spot and his wife, two sons and another family member were injured when the car in which they were travelling hit a tree near Lakshminagar in Dwarka Tirumala mandal.
Bhadri's youngest son Sati Satwik (8) succumbed while undergoing treatment at a hospital.
Police said the injured were first shifted to a hospital at Eluru and later to Vijayawada.
Bhadri, a popular face on Telugu news channel TV9, was returning to his native village in the same district after attending the marriage of his relative Saturday night. He was 38.
Hailing from East Godavari, Badri was an engineering graduate with a keen interest in media which eventually made him a core member of the news team of TV9 Telugu.
An employee from the time of launch in 2004, he was handling prime time bulletins.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao and leaders of all political parties in both the states expressed deep shock over the news presenter's death.
Naidu said he was saddened by the death of the dynamic journalist. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister said Bhadri's style of anchoring brought him popularity.
With inputs from IANS