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Budda Vengal Reddy
was a notorious leader of an armed feudal faction in the Atmakur area of Kurnool
district in the faction-ridden region of Rayalaseema. His hands were stained
with the blood of several innocent people, most of whom are poor and landless
peasants belonging to the most socially oppressed caste of Dalits or to other
backward castes. No wonder he fitted well into the ruling Telugu Desam party led
by the hi-tech factionalist Chandrababu Naidu who himself came to power through
a "Palace Coup" against his father-in-law, NTR.
Budda began his mafla
career as a small arrack contractor towards the end of the 1970s, and his
political career as the sarpanch of Velpanoor village. As the leader of an armed
faction he eliminated several of his adversaries including a sarpanch of Atmakur,
Hussain Saab; and later, a witness to this incident was murdered by Budda’s men
in Velugodu bus stand. An example of his feudal arrogance was the murder of a
lorry driver when the latter did not clear the way for Budda’s car. Thus as his
clout grew bigger and bigger, the atrocities he conunitted knew no limits. He
became an MLA from Atmakur assembly constituency and later a minister in the
state cabinet. Anyone who opposed him or became a hurdle for obtaining tenders
for project contracts, road contracts, arrack etc., or who refused to give him a
share in the contracts, was killed mercilessly. He even seized the property of
those who fled the village unable to bear the atrocities committed by Budda’s
gang; he used this property of others to maintain his henchmen. Besides, both
Vengal Reddy and his son Seetharama Reddy, were notorious for their misbehaviour
with women.
Budda foisted several
fake cases against the leaders and members of the Radical Youth League and other
revolutionary mass organisations. His goondaism reached its pitch when on July
17 last year his gang attacked the dalit basti in Vempenta village in Pamulapadu
mandal; set fire to the colony of Madigas (the more oppressed caste among dalits);
killed nine people five belonging to madiga caste and four to Backward Castes;
and threw their bodies into the flames. The gruesome incident created a big
furore in AP but the main culprits led by Budda Vengal Reddy, having the backing
of the TDP government in the state, faced no problem from the police or the
judiciary. He was also involved in another nine murders in Durvesi and his son
was the principal accused in Kedarnath murder case in 1995.
When nine dalits who
were also supporters of PW, were burnt alive by Budda Vengal Reddy’s goons in
Vempenta, the secretary of Nallamala Forest Division of CPI (ML) [People’s War],
openly announced that the killing of their supporters will be avenged and named
Budda as the principal accused in the ghastly incident. Ever since then Budda
has been moving with a posse of armed body guards, which included his own armed
gang along with the commandos provided by the government.
At about 8-30 P. M.
on August 11, 1999, Budda was holding a meeting with his faction leaders in the
KC Canal section oftice which was just in front of the office of the Atmakur
DySP when a Special Guerilla Squad of CPI (ML)[People’s War] made a daring
attack and killed him on the spot along with two of his henchmen. At the time of
the guerilla attack, a crime branch meeting was taking place in the top floor of
the DySP office.
The operation was
swift and very meticulously planned. The guerillas arrived in a jeep dressed up
as policemen. The jeep stopped right in front of the building in which Budda was
holding the meeting. As the squad Commander and Deputy commander, dressed up as
a Circle Inspector and Sub-Inspector, went into the building, the bodyguards
waiting at the entrance saluted them. Three other guerillas dressed up as police
constables waited at the entrance while the two comrades went into the meeting
room and shot dead Vengal Reddy and also two of his henchmen who tried to attack
the guerillas. On seeing this, the bodyguards of Vengal Reddy who were outside,
fled fast from the scene with fear. The entire operation was completed in a few
minutes (just two minutes according to newspaper reports).
The daring action by
People’s War guerillas which took place in the heart of Atmakur town and that
too in the vicinity of the DySP office, unnerved the ruling TDP politicians. In
the past five years of TDP fascist rule, over 800 people, most of them members
of People’s War or its mass organisations or sympathisers, were killed. With the
People’s War announcing that it will avenge the death of its martyrs, through
selective annihilations of the ruling class representatives, most of the
prominent politicians have fled to the capital city and none of the ruling party
functionaries, even at the lower level, dare to enter into the Telangana
countryside and other areas under People’s War influence.
On the other hand,
the daring attack on Budda Vengal Reddy has enthused the revolutionary masses of
AP, the dalit sections as well as all those disgusted with the faction-ridden
politics of Rayalaseema and the politics of murder pursued by Budda and his
likes. On hearing this happy news of Budda’s annihilation the people of Vempenta
distributed sweets.
Those guilty of the
most heinous crimes may escape from the bourgeois law but not from the people’s
wrath.
— Vinay, Our
Correspondent from A.P.
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