Warring families continue murders in Rajahmundry

Rajahmundry: There seems to be no end to the spate of revenge killings between Bhutam and Thurapati families of Pinakadimi village in Pedavegi mandal of West Godavari district, with the latest case of an alleged attempt to murder Thurapati Nagaraju being registered at Eluru on Tuesday night.

Bhutam Durga Rao and Thurapati Nagaraju hail from Pinakadimi village.  
Bhutam Durga Rao’s brother Bhutam Govind’s daughter Sridevi married Thurapati Nagaraju's son Siva Krishna after the two fell in love. This was opposed by Bhutam Durga Rao. Subsequently, Bhutam Durga Rao, who used to run the JK Palace lodge in Eluru was killed allegedly by Thurapati Nagaraju and his supporters at Pinakadimi village in April 2013.

Durga Rao’s wife reportedly vowed to take revenge for the murder by eliminating all family members of Thurapati Nagaraju. Nagaraju is the prime accused along with 19 others in Durga Rao’s murder case.

Nagaraju’s father-in-law Gandham Nageswara Rao and his two sons Peda Maraiah and China Maraiah were killed allegedly by Bhutam Govind and his supporters at Peda Avutapalli in Krishna district in 2014 to avenge the earlier killing.

Bhutam Govind along with 35 others were booked in the triple murder case by the police in Krishna district.

Thurapati Nagaraju survived a murder attempt on him by his rivals at Saroornagar in Hyderabad in 2015. He was sent to jail. After serving nearly six months in the jail, he came out on bail. Nagaraju is living in Eluru along with his family members as it was no longer safe to stay at home village Pinakadimi.

However, a fresh attempt was made to kill him on Tuesday night as a gang of four chased him and opened fire. However, he survived the attack with a bullet wound. He was admitted to the government hospital at Eluru and is likely to get discharged shortly.

Bhutam Govind is learnt to have shifted his base to London for safety and he is operating from there by engaging contract killers to eliminate the rivals, it is believed.

Meanwhile, police beefed up security at Pinakadimi village by strengthening the police force at the picket in the village to avoid any incident.
Pinakadimi SI V. Ramakoteswara Rao said.

“As a precautionary measure, we are keeping a close vigil on maintenance of law and order in the village and the village is calm now.”

After murder of Bhutam Durga Rao, family members from both the warring groups are in hiding, conspiring to eliminate their rivals. Pinakadimi villagers say that unless either Bhutam Govind or his arch rival Thurapati Nagaraju is eliminated, there will be no end to the spree of killings and attempts to kill rivals.