By IANS
Hyderabad : A woman member of a village-level local body and her eight-year-old grandson were burnt alive by some unidentified persons in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district early Saturday.
The incident took place in the early hours of the day at Shrangavaraksham village in Tondangi, about 500 km from here.
Police said unidentified people barged into the house of D. Ratnam belonging to the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), poured kerosene on her and her grandson and set them afire.
The 45-year-old ward member of the gram panchayat and her grandson were asleep. While Ratnam died on the spot, her grandson Veerababu succumbed to injuries in a hospital. Another woman, a relative of Ratnam, was also injured in the incident and she was admitted to a hospital.
The incident led to tension in the village as police force was rushed to the area as a precautionary measure.
Police have taken three people into custody in connection with the incident and were questioning them. They were trying to find out if there were any political motives behind the gruesome killing.
Local TDP leaders alleged that the activists of the ruling Congress party were behind the murder as Ratnam was exposing irregularities in various government-run schemes in her village. She also had a fight with another ward member in a recent meeting of the panchayat.