Ex-village sarpanch axed to death by Maoists in AP

A former village sarpanch was axed to death allegedly by Maoists for supporting bauxite mining in the district, police said today.
Nearly 300 people, including Maoists, militia members and their sympathisers, reached the house of Jerrala village's ex-sarpanch and present director of Chintapalli market committee S Venkata Ramana (30) last night, they said.
They took Ramana out of the house, tied him to a pole and killed him with an axe, alleging that the victim was supporting bauxite mining in the agency area of the district, according to circle inspector of police G K Veedhi.
The deceased, believed to be a member of the Telugu Desam Party, resided at Chintapalli. He came to Jerrala village yesterday to console the family members of a relative who died in the village, police said.

The Maoists looted the house of Ramana in Jerrala village and took away 20 bags of coffee nuts, nine goats and Rs 50,000 cash, before damaging the tiled house and setting it on fire, the inspector said.
Later, police sent the body for postmortem and handed it over to his family members.
Meanwhile, combing operations are on in the agency area to nab the culprits, police added.