NO LEADS IN CABLE TV MURDERS

The police forces in both Vijaywada and Mumbai are still clueless about who was behind the murders of two senior cable TV professionals. While Ram Punjabi, an executive director with the multisystems operator InCableNet, was gunned down in broad daylight two weeks ago, P. Ramakrishnan, the managing director of another MSO and InCableNet rival SitiCable in Andhra Pradesh was shot dead last Sunday night. Punjabi, it is alleged, was killed by hitmen from the underworld, as he had had associations with them in the past.

A cable TV industry veteran says: "Without any disrespect to him, he lived by the sword and died by it. His contacts with the mafia closed in on him."

Ramakrishnan, Siticable alleges, was killed by his former partner Shesagiri Rao, who is politically well connected in Andhra Pradesh. "He is absconding. The sad part is the police will do nothing because of his Telugu Desam connections," a Zee TV spokesperson says.