The events leading to the arrest of a bitter rival of the Minister - Raghavender Raju, his brother Madhusudhan Raju and another person Munnuru Ravi at the house of Mr. Jitender Reddy in New Delhi on Wednesday - was the culmination of a long feud over last six years.
Raghavender Raju, who was central to the feud, alleged a conspiracy by the Minister to close down his bar and an Aadhaar enrolment centre in Mahbubnagar, which he alleged caused him a loss of ₹6 crore.
The differences between Mr. Raghavender Raju and the Minister widened after the former’s brother Madhusudhan Raju and his wife Radha quit the Congress to join TRS. While Mr. Madhusudhan Raju was made Mahbubnagar agricultural market committee chairman, Ms. Radha served as Mahbubnagar municipal chairperson, much to the dislike of the Minister.
After the 2018 Assembly elections, Mr. Raghavender Raju complained to the Election Commission that Mr. Srinivas Goud had tampered with its website to make changes to his election affidavit. He also filed a case in the High Court seeking disqualification of the Minister as MLA and fresh election to Mahbubnagar constituency that he represented.
The Election Commission directed the Chief Electoral Officer Shashank Goel to investigate the matter but he was transferred to Delhi on deputation. Thereafter, a technical team of EC was probing the complaint.
As things stood, three persons who were close to Raju brothers went missing on February 23 and 24 while the brothers were themselves picked up by police from the servant quarters of the ex-MPs house in Delhi on Wednesday. It was alleged that Raghavender Raju hired two persons from Mahbubnagar - Farooq and Hyder - to kill Mr. Srinivas Goud but they alerted the police as they got scared. Rahgavender Raju made a vain bid to get them killed near Kompally here.
