Belli Lalitha (29 April 1974 – 26 May 1999) was an Indian folk singer and founder of Telangana Kala Samithi who was murdered in 1999.
She was born in Nancharipet, Motakondur Mandal, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district in a Telugu-speaking Kuruma family.
She was active in the civil liberties movement and an activist for statehood for Telangana region in the late 1990s.
[citation needed] In 1999, she was kidnapped, assaulted, and hacked with an axe to the point her body parts were dismembered into 17 pieces.
Initially, the then TDP government home minister Alimineti Madhava Reddy was implicated in the murder but later cleared[citation needed] after further evidence pointed to local Naxalite godfather and kingpin Mohammed Nayeemuddin.