A retired police officer, Ravinder Reddy, who worked at Bhongir as DSP and Choutuppal as Inspector, both in undivided Nalgonda district in the late 90s, was questioned by officials of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday.
He was summoned to the Narsingi police station of Cyberabad here and examined in cases related to slain gangster Nayeemuddin alias Nayeem.
When Mr. Reddy worked at Bhongir, Nayeem had come out of prison having been arrested in the assassination case of senior IPS officer K. S. Vyas.
Close contacts
The Naxal renegade had then reportedly maintained close contacts with some police officials and was instrumental in the killing of several Naxal leaders and civil rights activists. Mr. Reddy was reportedly grilled about his contacts with Nayeem.
SIT officials sought to know if the former additional superintendent of police had been in touch with Nayeem when he worked as Choutuppal Inspector. They examined him if any police officer had aided Nayeem in carrying out the murder of revolutionary singer Belli Lalitha of Bhongir and others.
Ancestral properties
Sources maintained that the Special Investigation Team officers asked Mr. Reddy if he had acquired any properties through the slain gangster. Mr Reddy, however, replied that he already had ancestral properties at Nizamabad.
Nayeem had reportedly come in contact with the retired Additional SP when the latter was at Medak and wanted to meet him. Mr. Reddy was believed to have told the investigators that he had refused to meet him.
Mr. Ravinder Reddy is the first police officer to be examined by the SIT in Nayeem-related cases. Names of several police officers found mention in many First Information Reports (FIRs) relating to purchase of lands, mostly in and around Bhongir, with the help of Nayeem.
They were yet to be examined.
