Parties move from pubs to farmhouses

With police cracking the whip on pubs and other places of amusement such as lounges and hookah centres, many youngsters choosing farmhouses located on city outskirts to celebrate the weekends. Police said many owners are converting their farmhouses into commercial amusement places without proper permits and attracting youngsters to organise parties there. Chevella DSP K Silpavalli told Express that they have specific information that many owners of farmhouses are involved in organising parties illegally. “We are keeping a vigil on such activities and will take stern action against the owners for violating rules. Police will not object if anyone organises personal events or family functions at farmhouses. But, they should not be used as commercial places, inviting people and charges amounts,” she added. Ahead of the New Year, Ranga Reddy police will issue notices to all farmhouse owners not to indulge in organising commercial events or parties in respective farmhouses without permission. The Special Operations Team (SOT), Cyberabad, busted a three-member gang involved in supplying Ephedrin, a narcotic substance, at Rajendranagar recently. They revealed that the gang used to supply the drug to collegegoers, youngsters etc. The SOT police said the accused confessed that they supplied the drug to some farmhouse owners who organise weekend parties at Chevella, Shabad, Shankerpally and Parigi in Ranga Reddy district.

By Moule Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com

Gujarat CM casts a spell on Tollywood too

It was not the Aam Janta alone that was chanting the NaMO mantra. Tollywood bigwigs were in fair attendance at Hotel Park Hyatt, where Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with them. Actor Mohan Babu’s daughter Lakshmi Manchu, who led the team of Telugu film fraternity to meet and greet Modi, told Express that the meeting was apolitical and the actors had a candid chat with Modi about Gujarat’s growth story and the contribution of Telugus to Gujarat’s success. “May God bless him to become our next prime minister,” Lakshmi said. Mohan Babu and his son Vishnu; directors K Raghavendra Rao and Ramgopal Varma; music director MM Kiravani; producers Allu Aravind and C Kalyan; and actors Suman, Jagapathi Babu, Balakrishna, Murali Mohan, Krishnam Raju, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Suresh Babu and Rana Daggubati were amont those who met Modi. The Tollywood personalities explained the prevailing situation in the state after the announcement of separate Telangana state by the Congress party. Mohan Babu said he was very proud of his daughter Lakshmi Manchu for organising the ‘meet and greet’ for the film fraternity with Modi. He had an exclusive opportunity to share some insights about the state. May the Lord bless him (Modi) to be our next PM, he said. Director Ram Gopal Varma posted on twitter that the closing line of Narendra Modi’s speech in the city made the whole crowd chant “Jai Telangana, Jai Seemandhra” together, which is pure genius. Actor Balakrishna also met Modi and invited him for his younger daughter Tejaswini’s wedding. Lakshmi Manchu told Express that her father and she invited Narendra Modi to visit Tirupati to have a darshan of Lord Venkateswara. “Modi invited Mohan Babu and Balakrishna to visit Gujarat. It was a constructive meeting. Gujarat’s success is inspiring. He shared views on the current state of affairs in the state and hoped that people from all the three regions progress and prosper equally,” Manchu said.

By Mouli Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com

ACP denies driving Congress man to suicide

ACP P Radhakishan

Congress leader Yamjala Sridhar Reddy, who committed suicide on Saturday, had reportedly approached the Uppal police a week ago and complained that a police official was harassing him by demanding bribe in connection with a murder case. However, Uppal inspector Laxmikanth Reddy had asked him to give the complaint in writing, which Reddy chose not to give. The official in question, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Malkajgiri, P Radhakishan Rao, however, denied driving Sridhar to suicide. In his suicide note, Sridhar Reddy had accused the ACP of demanding a bribe of `10 lakh in connection with two cases. One of Congress leader M Jagadishswar Reddy’s murder and the other of an attempted murder against the slain man’s brother Parameswar Reddy. Sridhar was the main accused in both cases. Speaking to Express, ACP P Radhakishan Rao termed the bribery allegations baseless. He said he had met Sridhar twice, once when the Congress leader was arrested on June 12 and earlier, when he was an inspector of Special Branch when he arrested Sridhar with six others for their alleged involvement in the murder case of Jagadishwar Reddy. With the trial in Jagadishwar Reddy’s murder case beginning on July 8 in a local court, the victim might have feared judicial examination as the police submitted evidence to the court, the ACP said. “If I had demanded bribe or threatened him, why did he fail to bring the issue to the notice of my higher ups? The police also arrested him this month and produced him before the court. Why did he not tell the magistrate if I harassed him or demanded bribe?” the ACP wondered, adding that Sridhar might have nursed a grudge against him after he submitted strong evidence in Jagadishwar Reddy’s murder case. “Even as police registered cases against me in connection with the victim’s suicide, the probe team will look into the issue and bring out the facts,” he said. ACP Radhakishan was the Investigation officer of Jagadishwar Reddy’s murder case when he was inspector, Special branch, Cyberabad. He investigated the murder case and submitted charge-sheet to the court in 2007. When S Prabhakar Reddy was Police Commissioner, he handed over the case to Mutyam Reddy. As serious allegations against Mutyam Reddy poured in, the Police Commissioner appointed Radhakishan as investigation officer who finished the probe in two months. Meanwhile, the Special Operation Team (SOT) has taken over the case and K Dronacharyulu, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Counter-Intelligence Cell (CIC), Cyberabad would start the investigation questioning the family members of the victim and police officials on Monday.

Flashback

May 23, 2007: The accused who came on a bike chased the vehicle of  Ranga Reddy district Congress leader M Jagadishwar Reddy, 38, and stabbed him to death in Uppal. The victim was returning to his house in Uppal from Ramanthapur in a car when two unidentified persons riding a bike came from behind and stopped the vehicle. Soon after the victim got down, the duo stabbed him. The victim’s family members, in their complaint to the police, accused Sridhar Reddy and his followers of master-minding the murder. June 2, 2007: The Cyberabad police arrested six persons who killed Jagadishwar Reddy. Y Sridhar Reddy of Uppal, also a Congress leader, is alleged to have hired the youngsters for killing Jagadishwar as he feared political threat from the latter. He also allegedly paid `4.5 lakh for the contract killing.

Mouli Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com

50,000 dial 100 every day!

It was 4.30 a.m on Monday. A 30-year-old woman, coming in a Super Luxury bus of the APSRTC from Razole to Hyderabad, got a rude shock when a co-passenger began misbehaving with her, despite the fact that there were more than 35 on board. As the bus arrived in Shanthinagar, 40 kms from the city, the woman alerted the bus driver and dialled 100. The lecher did not realise that he was dealing with a police constable! She knew exactly what was to be done. Within minutes, a police team rushed to the spot. The culprit, a post-graduate, working in a private pharma company, belongs to the same place as the woman in West Godavari district. He tendered an apology after which the woman excused him but not before the police took his details. In another incident, a passerby, upon noticing a group of women thrashing a man at Alwin Colony near Kukaatpally, dialled 100 and alerted the staff about the nuisance on the street. Within 25 minutes, the Kukatpally police rescued the man. It later transpired that his wife had caught him red-handed with another woman with the help of some women’s organisations. The police counselled the couple. These are just two of the nearly 50,000 calls that the staff of Dial 100 have been receiving on an average every day ever since the service was launched on the occasion of Ugadi. According to sources, a majority of the calls are made from Hyderabad followed by Ranga Reddy and Krishna districts. Typically, the callers inform about either accidents, burglaries, petty issues or sexual harassment. “We have directed all Station House Officers to respond to alerts from the Dial 100 staff. In the last four days, the police were alerted about accidents and petty issues. After the police reach the spot, they take statements from the victim and issue a receipt as acknowledgment,” B Raja Kumari, SP, Ranga Reddy told Express. When contacted, Inspector General of Police, Law and Order, J Purnachandra Rao, who is looking after Dial 100 functioning, said he was only responsible for internal work.

By Moule Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com

How a boy's IPS dream crashed

Pasupuleti Krishna (38), who works as a watchman, wanted to see his son as an IPS officer. But the hope died with his 16-year-old son, Omkar, who left this world on his birth day on Friday when his bike hit an oil tanker. Omkar had been an active NCC cadet since his childhood because he thought exposure to NCC would help him reach his goal of becoming an IPS officer. A day after after Omkar’s death in a road accident, grief-stricken parents and other  members of the family could not control their emotion while narrating how he hard he was working to reach his goal. “All our family members hoped to see Omkar do well academically and reach great heights professionally. Omkar’s father Krishna took special interest in him and encouraged him to secure a good score in Class X whose final examinations will commence on March 22. In the early hours of Friday, we received the bitter news that Omkar met with an accident and we were asked to go to police station to identify the body,’’ said P Ramesh, the boy’s uncle. All the family members and relatives  participated in Omkar’s birthday celebrations at his house on Thursday. On that day, as usual, he went to school and had a gala time with his friends. On Thursday, Omkar celebrated his birthday in his class. After finishing study hours around late in the night, Omkar and his two friends Harikrishna and Baghavan Reddy on their way to Uppal to get a cake to celebrate his birthday again. As the bike on which they were triple riding reached the Uppal bus stop, a Indian Oil tanker hit the bike and Omkar died on the spot. Harikrishna and Baghavan Reddy too died later while undergoing treatment at a private hospital. Despite struggling to make both ends meet, Krishna and his wife Lavanya, who runs a laundry unit at Medipally village, managed to save money for the education of their children Omkar and Neha. Neha is studying engineering. To reach his goal of becoming a police officer Omkar joined the NCC and attended camps in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and other places. He was very a brilliant student,’’ recalled M Suresh, a relative.

By Moule Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com

City jewellery shops become soft target for hardcore thieves

The thefts at jewellery shops in the city continued on Sunday, with a fourth incident being reported within a month.CCTV footage could not help identify the culprits as it lacked clarity. In the latest incident, unidentified persons gained entry into Lakshmi jewellery and pawn brokers, at Abdulpurmet under Hayatnagar police limits. They decamped with 2 kg of silver ornaments worth Rs 1 lakh. Around midnight, three persons entered the shop by making a hole in the wall. They took away 2 kg of silver ornaments,” said Hayatnagar inspector G Srinivas Kumar. Shop owner Ganapathi Choudhary lodged a complaint, he said. Police inspected the scene along with clues team and collected evidence. “The culprits also tried to break open the lockers where some gold ornaments were kept. They were inside the shop till 4. 05 am. CCTV footage taken from the shop did not have clarity due to darkness,” the inspector said. Police suspect that interstate gangs are involved in jewellery thefts in the city. Guidelines have been issued to jewellery shop owners for taking measures to prevent such offences. Police see the hand of gangs from Bihar and Gujarat, with expertise in opening locked shutters and making holes in walls. After the theft, the gangs move the stolen jewellery to places like Mumbai and sell it away at low prices. In the last few weeks, a woman and her two associates, posing as customers, stole gold ornaments studded with diamonds from MOR jewellery shop at Punjagutta. Elsewhere, culprits made entry by making holes to the walls of two jewellery shops. In another case, shutters were broke open and silver ornaments stolen from a shop under Sanathnagar police limits. “Many shop owners do not take steps to prevent such offences. Though jewellery shops have installed CCTVs, they do not function properly. Every shop should have security guards both day and night and install alarm systems. The alarm device installed at a jewellery shop at Kukatpally averted a major theft recently,” said LKV Ranga Rao, deputy commissioner of police, CCS. However, a majority of jewellery shops introduced the bar code identification system, in which each item has a radio frequency tag, which will check theft by fake customers. Ashok Kumar Gupta, secretary, Twin Cities Jewellery Shops Association, told Express that most of the jewellery shop owners are complying with the rules and regulations set by police.
About 70 percent of the shops have CCTV, he said. “Thefts at jewellery shops in the city take place every year during summer. The offenders come from elsewhere,” he added.

By Moule Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com

Wounded SI was a livewire at Academy

Sub-inspector Nomula Venkatesh who was shot and wounded seriously by a fleeing robber on Friday is remembered by his peers at the Andhra Pradesh Police Academy (APPA) as quite a livewire. The 33-year-old officer was nicknamed ‘Agni’ for his fiery approach to enforcing the law. Venkatesh was hospitalised after being shot while chasing a gang of five that tried to hold up a bank in Medak district on Friday. Doctors at Krishna Institute of Medical Science (KIMS) operated on him and removed a 9 mm bullet lodged in his chest. Venkatesh was in the intensive care unit (ICU), his condition put at ‘stable’. To see him lying helpless was an ordeal for his family, especially 56-year-old mother Ilamma. “Doctors told me he will recover. I’m praying to god,’’ said Illamma with tear-filled eyes. The young officer began his career as sub-inspector posted to the Jinnaram police station in Medak district in 2009. While there, he earned a reputation of being a tough officer. He worked later posted to the Ramayampet police station and then to Kohir in the same district, where the botched hold up and shooting took place. Freshly after being posted to Kohir, Venkatesh started operations against matka gambling in the local villages. “He used to visit villages to counsel people to fight addiction to gambling,’’ said his close friend Giri, who has been selected as an assistant commercial taxes officer (ACTO).  Venkatesh was born in Mandapalli village in Alair mandal in Medak district. His parents, Ilamma and Ilaiah, are farmers. Venkatesh did his post-graduation at Nizam College and completed his B.Ed from a college in Bhongir. He was recruited to the police in 2009.He married Madhuri in 2011 and they have a six-month-old baby girl Vaishnavi.

By Moule Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com