Usha's life was blown to pieces by a police bullet. The 25-year-old saw her husband dying in her lap. The bullet left a gaping hole in Yelagandula Veeraiah’s stomach, a labourer in a granite factory, as he pleaded his wife to save him.“He said he wanted to live. He asked me to save his life, but he was bleeding profusely. He told me to take care of the children. Those were his last words and he collapsed in my lap,” Usha told The Indian Express.Veeraiah is one of the six victims of Saturday’s brutal police firing. Veeraiah went where the rasta-roko protest was being held, about 200 yards from his in-laws’ house, and fell prey to the bullet.The town is seething with anger with villagers gathering at the spot where the firing took place. Isukala Gopaiah, a rickshaw puller, who lived in SC Colony, had gone out to see what was happening when he was hit by a bullet on his forehead. Ironically, five of the six victims were not affiliated to any party. They happened to be on the spot by chance and paid the penalty.Kutumba Rao of Chirumari limped into the dharna camp after he was hit by a bullet on his leg. But the police bullets chased him and Rao died while shielding seven CPI(M) activists, who were on an indefinite hunger strike. “He collapsed before my eyes. He saved our lives,” said Chirumari sarpanch Bandi Usha.The scene of the incident showed how brutal the police had been. They had sprayed bullets all around. There were bullet marks all over—on compound walls, telephone poles, and on tree trunks—in almost all directions.“It went on for 30 minutes. They just wanted to kill people,” said Damodar, a local activist. The police fired from close range and the bullets went as far as 300 metres and pierced through the shutters of closed shops, he said.
