KURUPAM, VIZIANAGARAM, March 13: Deadly silence engulfs Kurupam, a remote town in Vizianagaram district. The memory is still fresh in the minds of the locals who witnessed a gory clash last night's of two Khatriya group supporters and deathof two persons in the police firing.The town almost became a battlefield when Kurupam's former Raja and Congress leader Vyricherla Pradeep Chandra Dev and those of the newly elected Parvatipuram TDP MP and former Raja of China, Merangi Shatrucharla Vijayaramarajau clashed.
Two Vijayaramaraju supporters, V Varahalu and V Bangaru Raju died when the police opened fire to quell the rioting mob while another supporter is in a critical condition. Vijayaramaraju and his brother and former MLA Chandrasekhara Raju also sustained injuries. The town was a scene of pieces of soda bottles, blood smears, dead fowls, upturned chairs and partly demolished houses.
The locals are still in a state of shock, unsure of what lay in store for them. They are skeptical of everyone enteringthe town. A womam, eyewitness to the whole incident, narrated the nightmare. "We were sleeping outside our houses. There was no power. They suddenly pounced on us and began beating up our men. The menfolk fled but we could not as we had children with us," she says. Her house, with household articles thrown scattered around and a black dried up spot of blood are testimony to the attack by the miscreants.
The reason for the attack was sown during the Lok Sabha election run-up when the entire town, a Congress stronghold, observed a bandh on the day Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was to address an election rally there.
The Telugu Desam Party workers were not provided with any facilities, not even water. This probably, angered the Telugu Desam workers who decided to strike the moment they got an oppurtunity.
When Dev of Congress lost to Vijayaramaraju in the elections, most of the town people who had betted in favour of Dev lost heavily to the TDP. This, the sources say, made the Congress workers hold agrudge against the TDP as Kurupam was their stronghold. From then on, Congress workers started attacking the TDP workers from time to time.
Last night the trouble began at 9 pm near the bus stop when Vijayramararaju supporters, about 15 in number, took Pradeep's supporters by surprise and began beating them.
In the meantime, Pradeep's supporters pulled themselves together and began retaliating. Soon the locals began to dominate Vijaramaraju's supporters.
Police Sub-Inspector M Seshu arrived with some constables and managed arrest Vijayaramaraju and his brother and managed to take them away to the police station for fear of his life.
But, Pradeep's supporters who had by then gathered outside the police station demanded that Vijayaramaraju and his brother be handed over to them. The SI, sensing the crowds mood, ordered his sentry to fire into the air. Hearing this, the crowd began retreating.
However, Vijaramaraju's supporters who had by then heard thet the MP has been arrested descended on the townin hundreds, virtually taking it by siege.
According to police, Vijaramaraju's crowd entered the town and spilled into the streets, unleashing a wave of terror. The SI and his team of five cosntables provided little strength to quell the rioting. When he tried to lathi charge, the rioters turned their ire at him, making him the target.
They started pelting stones at him, one of which caught him in his face while another constable was hurt too.
Even after exercising maximum restraint when they failed to control the mob, the SI fire with his pistol while simultaneously ordering his cosntable to shoot. They fired into the air first and later at the rioters feet.
But, MP Vijararamaraju maintans neither he nor his supporters resorted to violence as it was the people of Kurpam who attacked them. He believes the SI opened fire without any provocation at his supporters. "Police shooting is unwarranted. The SI should be arrested and a judicial inquiry be ordered into the incident," he said.
A case ofrioting has been registered against Vijayaramraraju and his brother by DIG R Sitararma Rao.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
