Hyderabad: A simmering feud between two families in Suraram village of Medak district turned deadly, leaving two persons murdered within 24 hours and triggering tension in the village.The killings, police said, were the result of a long-running personal dispute involving two auto drivers that led to revenge attacks.Trouble began on Monday evening when Y Sridhar (25), an auto driver from Suraram, was allegedly murdered by rival auto driver R Prabhu and his associates at Anantasagar village in Chegunta mandal.According to police, the accused chased Sridhar’s motorcycle in an autorickshaw and rammed into it at Anantasagar. Sridhar suffered a fatal head injury and died on the spot, while his friend Prabhakar, who was travelling with him, sustained injuries and was shifted to hospital for treatment.The assailants fled the scene, allegedly attempting to pass off the killing as a road accident, Chegunta police said.Enraged by Sridhar’s murder, his father Y Kishan, along with a relative and an associate, launched a search for Prabhu and his family members. They eventually traced Prabhu’s father R Yadagiri at a hotel near Narsapur crossroads in Toopran on Monday night.Police said the accused spotted Yadagiri having dinner at the hotel, dragged him outside and attacked him on the head with a cement brick. After the assault, they allegedly bundled his body into an auto and shifted him to Haldi reservoir near Koppulapally village, where his body was dumped during the early hours of Tuesday.Following information about the abduction, police teams launched a manhunt and apprehended some of the suspects on Tuesday morning. Based on their confession, Yadagiri’s body was recovered from the reservoir.During the preliminary investigation, police found that the feud had been brewing for several weeks. Sridhar had reportedly taken Prabhu’s sister’s auto but failed to pay the agreed amount. Frequent arguments over the payment led to Prabhu allegedly assaulting Sridhar earlier. The animosity deepened further when Prabhu married a woman who was Sridhar’s cousin against the wishes of her family.“We have shifted both the bodies for postmortem and deployed force in the village to prevent any further trouble. Separate murder cases were registered at Chegunta and Toopran police stations,” Toopran deputy SP J Narendar Goud said.Police said the majority of the accused have been taken into custody and are being interrogated. Additional force has been deployed in Suraram to prevent any escalation of tensions.
