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Prime suspect in car bomb blast surrenders

Congress legislator S V Ramana Reddy, prime suspect in Wednesday's car bomb explosion in Hyderabad which claimed 23 lives, surrendered before the police today.

Announcing this in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the police have launched a massive manhunt for other suspects, including former legislator Suryanarayana Reddy. He also announced a judicial inquiry into the blast.

Naidu maintained that the target of car bomb attack was not Rajya Sabha member and actor Mohan Babu. The star was recently expelled from the ruling Telugu Desam Party for his ''crusade against corruption''.

Naidu said the blast appeared to be a ''deep-rooted conspiracy to kill'' former state labour minister and sitting Penukonda legislator Paritala Ravi who was injured in the attack.

Rejecting the Congress demand for his resignation owning moral responsibility for the blast, Naidu said the crime branch would complete its investigation at the earliest. Bharatiya Janata Party members supported the Congress demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation into the incident.

In an unprecedented move, the assembly set aside the day's business to discuss the blast and adopted a resolution condemning it. The House also observed two minutes's silence as a mark of respect to those killed in the explosion.

The five-hour debate was marred by repeated trading of charges between the ruling Telugu Desam and Congress members. On a couple of occasions, Congress members rushed to the speaker's podium.

As for the chief minister, he cancelled all his important appointments in New Delhi despite the crisis facing the United Front government to stay back in Hyderabad.

Arriving in Hyderabad by a special flight from New Delhi immediately after learning of the incident yesterday, Naidu visited the blast site and called on Ravi and Mohan Babu undergoing treatment in two city hospitals.

The chief minister said he had spoken to Ravi and the latter suspected the involvement of political rivals from his native Anantapur district. Ravi is said to have named Ramana Reddy as the prime suspect, leading to his arrest.

Naidu said the car used in the blast was registered in 1982 in Karnataka and belonged to Kamala Kanwar, an employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

So powerful was the explosion that the Eenadu television network van was thrown up about 50 metres into the air. Revealing this, film critic G Ulaganathan, an eyewitness to the incident, said, ''One of the bodies fell near the studio guest house and a dismembered limb fell near the scooter of another film journalist inside the studio, about 400 metres away from the blast site.''

A large number of people had gathered at the studio last morning and there was confusion at the function as the studio security had gone haywire. As if this was not enough, a sizeable crowd, which was waiting outside, started following the Tata Sumo, carrying the star and the legislator, as it left the studio gates, Ulaganathan added.

UNI and M S Shanker in Hyderabad

EARLIER REPORT:
23 killed as Mohan Babu survives car bomb attack

EARLIER FEATURE:
Controversy is his middle name

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