Police arrest ‘Seizing’ Raja after two-week search

He was wanted in a double murder case on the outskirts of Chittoor

Superintendent of Police S.V. Rajasekhar Babu presenting Chennai gangster Seizing Raja (right) and aide Satish before the media in Chittoor on Friday.

After a fortnight-long manhunt involving a dozen special parties of Chittoor police spread over Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, the police on Friday arrested Chennai-based gangster N. Raja alias ‘Seizing’ Raja, 42, and his aide Satish, 30. The duo was wanted in connection with the double murder of Chennai gangsters on the outskirts of Chittoor town on the night of May 10.

Addressing a press conference here, Superintendent of Police S.V. Rajasekhar Babu said the arrest was the result of “highly scientific investigation and optimal use of technology.”

The police found two bodies along the Chittoor-Vellore National Highway at Panatoor village of Gudipala mandal, 10 km from Chittoor, on May 11. Senior police officials rushed to the spot, but had to return without clues.

After a gruelling search, they found the tyre marks of an SUV over a dried-up cake of blood close to the bodies, based on which they could identify the vehicle with the help of records at the nearby border toll plaza. The registration number of the vehicle pointed the needle of suspicion at N. Raja, a gangster in Tamil Nadu police records, hailing from Tambaram in Chennai. The deceased were identified as Ashok and Gopinath of Chennai, both former aides of Raja. Police suspect gang rivalry to be the reason for the murder.

Special teams

Special teams were despatched to Chennai and other major cities in Tamil Nadu. With the data collected from cellphone towers, the police zeroed in on the suspect mobile numbers.

Between May 11 and 23, the police teams took up investigation in Chennai, Vellore, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Tiruchi and half a dozen places in Tamil Nadu; Bengaluru and Kolar in Karnataka; Munnar, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala; and Chittoor and Tirupati. Thousands of fingerprints of criminals from police data of Tamil Nadu were studied; and a dozen members of ‘Seizing’ Raja’s gang were interrogated. The police tracked the movement of the duo with the help of cellphone towers to Kerala.

However, suspecting the police searches, the duo began their journey to Chittoor, with a plan to approach an advocate.

Alert police teams intercepted the vehicle of ‘Seizing’ Raja with the help of cellphone signals and nabbed the duo close to Gudipala mandal headquarters on Friday, close to the spot where the accused had executed the double murder.

Deputy SPs Subba Rao (law and order) and I. Ramakrishna (Crime) took out the investigation.