It was an ex-Greyhounds man who tried to abduct Aurobindo Pharma vice-president K. Nityananda Reddy near KBR Park, Jubilee Hills, on Wednesday, investigators suspect.
Exuding confidence that the former policeman would be caught soon, they said all leads pointed to his possible involvement in the sensational but vain kidnap bid which created ripples in the city.
The needle of suspicion naturally swung towards ex-Greyhounds personnel as the AK 47 rifle abandoned by the accused inside the car of Mr. Reddy turned out to be the one that went missing from the Greyhounds training centre at Premavathipet, Narsingi, on the city outskirts.
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“While pursuing this line of investigation, we stumbled upon a bill from a shop in Mehdipatnam in the bag abandoned at the spot by the attacker,” a police officer, unwilling to be quoted, told this correspondent.
Investigators rushed to the shop and examined the video footage of the secret cameras. The facial features of the person who had purchased the article matched that of the ex-Greyhounds man. A massive hunt has been launched for him with scores of special police teams being sent to different places.
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Interestingly, investigators are also verifying reports that this was not the first attempt of the suspect to kidnap a person.
Second kidnap case
“It is said the suspect had earlier abducted the grandson of a retired top bureaucrat of undivided Andhra Pradesh recently and set free the kid after collecting a hefty ransom. No complaint was lodged,” said a top police official, also not wanting to be identified. This unreported kidnap for ransom was, however, informed to the police higher-ups.
Before securing video footage of the shop, the Banjara Hills police investigating the case verified if there were any surveillance cameras near and close to the spot where the incident was reported. “There was only a camera but the video footage showed the suspect’s image carrying a backpack and another bag in the hand,” said the police.
The AK 47 rifle he carried had a folding butt and could be stuffed in a bag without arousing anyone’s suspicion. It was nine months ago that Narsingi police of Cyberabad registered a case of theft of AK 47 rifle following a complaint from the officials of the Greyhounds training centre at Premavathipet.
Loss of weapon
Officials of Greyhounds, the elite commando force formed by the undivided Andhra Pradesh police to fight left wing extremists, stated then that some of their personnel lost the firearm from Premavathipet centre. Though the weapon was lost in Dec. 2013, the complaint was lodged only in Feb. 2014.
The Narsingi police registered a case under Section 380 (theft) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) on receipt of the complaint.
“The Greyhounds officials conducted internal inquiries about the loss of the AK 47 rifle. They, however, didn’t submit us any final report on the findings of their inquiry,” a top police officer of Cyberabad said. Some persons working in Greyhounds were suspended holding them responsible for the loss of the weapon then, investigators said.