One text message led to Bhanu’s arrest

Desperate for money, fugitive SMSed his friend

He successfully evaded police for nearly 15 months after committing a murder. Even investigators gave up hopes of catching Mallisetty Bhanu Kiran, having hit a dead end on every clue.

But it was a single text message through a mobile phone that blew the lid off Bhanu, then a most wanted fugitive. No doubt the investigators did their best to secure conviction to him in the sensational killing of Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddelacheruvu Suri.

But equally challenging was the way they finally caught him having toiled to trace him for more than a year. Within seconds of killing Suri on January 3, 2011 in Banjara Hills while travelling in a car with him, Bhanu fled the spot.

With the help of an acquaintance, he and his aide Manmohan reached Sholapur in a car. From there, they went to Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon and later Madhya Pradesh. “There was no clue for us as Bhanu stopped contacting everyone including his family members over phone,” investigators recalled on Wednesday.

Like in other cases, the investigators secured his mobile phone Call Data Record (CDR) details, analysed the data and questioned everyone who came under their suspicion radar. As days and weeks passed by, police were getting worried if the prime suspect would remain elusive forever.

They kept tracking mobile phones of every person who had earlier spoken with Bhanu. Still, no lead was emerging as Bhanu didn’t contact anyone. Meanwhile, it was becoming difficult for the fugitive also to survive as there was no money from any source.

He managed to secure a municipal identity card from Seoni in Madhya Pradesh where he took shelter. He even got a driving licence from there. “At one stage, he was feeling desperate for lack of money and sent a message through his mobile phone to an acquaintance,” officers associated with the investigation of the case then said. After sending the message, he immediately switched off the phone.

Officers tracking the mobile phones of his acquaintances swung into action after noticing the message. Based on that single message, they analysed signals of his mobile phone and located the place from where the signals emanated when the message was sent.

Once that place was identified, it became easier for the police to track him. Keeping an eye on his location, they finally caught him at Zaheerabad officially!