Police said that the Maoists who killed Telugu Desam Party MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and his party colleague and former legislator S Soma in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district on Sunday have been identified.
Officials said that Sarveswara Rao, the 48-year-old MLA of Araku, and Siveri Soma, 52, a former legislator of the constituency, were targeted when they were returning from a government-sponsored ‘village visit’ programme. Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police, RP Thakur, on Monday released pictures of Maoists involved in the killing, identifying them as Aruna alias Venkata Ravi Chaitanya from Pendurthi mandal of Visakhapatnam, Koteswari alias Swarupa alias Sindri, and Chandri alias Rinki from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district and Julumuri Srinu Babu alias Sufil of Addatheegala in East Godavari district. Police said that all belonged to the Nandapur committee of Maoists. The Maoists were identified from feedback received from the personal assistants of the victims who had witnessed the killings, the first major strike by the Maoists in the state after it was bifurcated in 2014.
