AP rights group member hacked to death

AP rights group member hacked to death
Express News Service

Hyderabad, November 23: A senior functionary of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) was hacked to death in broad daylight in Saroornagar, Hyderabad today. Forty-year-old T. Purushottam, joint secretary of the leading civil rights in the state, was attacked with swords by four persons after he stepped out of a grocery store near his residence.

Family members of Purushottam and civil rights activists alleged that the killing was committed by the police themselves or private gangs supported by the law and order machinery. The police have denied the charge.

The assailants, who came in a Tata Sumo vehicle, waylaid Purushottam on the bustling road, half-a-km from Purushottam residence in Madhurapuri colony. and repeatedly stabbed him, slashing him in the neck. He died almost instantaneously. The attackers fled in the same vehicle but there are no clues about their identity, police said. The Saroornagar police station is situated only 200 metres away from the spot.

The Rangareddy district Superintendent of police NV Surendra Babu along with other officials reached the spot within 15 minutes after the incident and shifted the body to the Osmania hospital mortuary.

However, doctors at the hospital did not conduct the autopsy on the ground that they did not receive any requisition from the police. The post-mortem will be done only tomorrow, after which the body would be taken to Purushottam's native place in Mahboobnagar district.

Purushottam, an advocate, is survived by wife Jyothi and a daughter. A few years ago, he had also worked for a Telugu daily as a reporter.

He was earlier attacked by unknown persons in 1997 in Pebberu village in Gadwal mandal in Mahboobnagar district. He moved to Hyderabad just last year, reportedly following threats to his life. This morning, he had been chalking out programmes to be organised during the APCLC state level meeting to be held at Anantapur district on December 9 and 10.