Industrialist Koganti Satyanarayana, popularly known as Koganti Satyam in Vijayawada, seems to be still continuing the criminal legacy of the city.
The city was known for its criminal activities for three decades from 1960s, with Communists starting the criminal activities and the Congress and the TDP pampering, if not promoting.
When Communist leader Chalasani Venkata Rathnam started the settlements and committing crime in the early 1960s, his chela, Vangaveeti Radha spread it.
Radha’s brother Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, who became Congress MLA, continued it, while his brother’s associate Devineni Rajasekhar Nehru carried it forward.
Both Vangaveeti Ranga and Devineni Nehru were at loggerheads in 1980s killing each other’s supporters in the broad day light in those days.
After Radha’s murder in 1970s and Ranga’s murder in 1980s, the goons spread over into different groups carrying out the murder politics.
Koganti Satyam was one of them who is accused of several murders and several incidents in 1990s.
Though the city returned to normalcy, he is accused in some murders that happened later on. Ironically, he had become an extortionist in the city resorting to private settlements, land grabbing, money laundering and other such activities.
The latest murder of real estate man, Karanam Rahul, in the city this week, points an accusing finger at Koganti Satyam.
The Vijayawada police have named him as A2 in the crime, in which Rahul was killed in his car in the city.
The police have also named a CPM former corporator Korada Vijay Kumar, as A1 in the murder.
Vijay Kumar is a small time money laundering activist, who is also into real estate for the past one decade.
One wonders why Koganti Satyam is still indulging in these criminal activities, when the city is slowly washing off its criminal past.
It is time, the police and political leadership act tough on Koganti Satyam, to end this sort of violence and criminal politics in the city.
