Narem Rajasekhar Reddy, a tomato farmer from Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya district, had recently sold his tomato crop and was allegedly killed to rob him.
The 62-year-old was found murdered on Wednesday in Bodimalladinne village of Madanapalle mandal in Andhra Pradesh.
The farmer, who was staying in an agriculture field away from the village, was on his way to the village to deliver the milk when he was killed.
His wife told police that some unidentified men had come to the farm on the pretext of buying tomatoes. They left the place after she told them that her husband had gone to the village.
His body was found with his hands and legs tied with silk thread and strangled to death with a towel.
According to the family, Reddy had recently earned Rs 30 lakh by selling tomatoes in an agriculture market.
Police suspect that the murder could be linked to this and are looking into if the farmer was carrying any money.
Last week a farmer from Goni Somanahalli village in Hassan had lodged a complaint with Halebeedu police claiming that tomatoes worth over 2.5 lakhs were stolen from his farm.
The farmer had alleged that thieves fled 90 boxes of tomatoes from his two-acre land.
“I have been growing tomatoes for seven to eight years. Never got a good price for the crop. This year I had reaped a rich crop and the price was also good. I thought of clearing my loans, but the incident had ruined my happiness,” he said.