Madhu’s wife tried to meet CM as police looked for him

Hyderabad: Peddapalli zilla parishad (ZP) chairman and TRS leader Putta Madhu went missing from the constituency on the day Eatala Rajender was dismissed as health minister from the state cabinet. There was no trace of Madhu till Saturday when Ramagundam cops said they picked him up in Bhimavaram in AP.
Madhu’s nephew Bittu Seenu, who was arrested, is the mastermind behind the murder of advocate couple Gattu Vaman Rao and PV Nagamani and police will now probe Madhu about his role in the double murder case.
Who is this Madhu? A close aide of Eatala, Madhu had joined the TRS in 2014 and was elected as an MLA in the general elections in the same year. Before joining the TRS, he was with Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party and contested in 2009 assembly elections on PRP ticket. He also worked as a ZPTC member from Manthani.
“He rose from a mandal praja parishad president to MLA to ZP chief in the past 15 years thanks to his connections and association with Eatala,” a party observer said.
TRS party sources said that Madhu must have been taken into custody by police for questioning in the advocate couple murder case and other criminal cases pending against him. Ironically, though he was missing for the past one week, his wife Shailaja, who is the chairperson of Manthani municipality, did not file a missing complaint with police. But, police were already tracking his whereabouts after reports emerged that he had gone off to Chandrapur in Maharashtra.
Shailaja tried to meet chief minister and TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao but in vain. She met minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy and is believed to have told the party leadership that Madhu is a follower of Eatala who was a district minister but denied that they have any personal contacts.
On May 5, close aides of Madhu held a press conference in Manthani and said the party high command is supreme and that Madhu is committed to obeying the party decision.
Interestingly, the state government transferred Huzurabad assistant commissioner of police and revenue divisional officer in the past two days. “A senior officer in the police department believed to be close to Madhu is also in the line of fire,” sources said. Eatala represents Huzurabad in the state assembly.
Soon after removing Eatala from the cabinet, the TRS leadership has shifted its focus on his close associates. The former minister’s follower Sadhava Reddy, who is husband of Veenavanka (Karimnagar) ZPTC member Vanamala, was slapped with a notice from the local cooperative bank in a fund misappropriation case.