A Corporator of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation representing the BJP has been arrested by the Rachakonda police for allegedly kidnapping the son of his political rival from the same party, to settle scores with him. Baddam Prem Maheswar Reddy, a GHMC corporator from Gaddiannaram division, was arrested along with nine other accused. The police are on the lookout for five other accused.
The Saroornagar police and the LB Nagar special operations team of the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate cracked the kidnapping case. The accused kidnapped Lanka Subramanyam (21) from his house in P&T Colony in Gaddiannaram and physically tortured him. The victim told the police that the accused thrashed him and tortured him with burning cigarettes butts. The accused even asked the victim to take a bath and get ready as they would be offering him as a sacrifice at a temple. According to the victim, they even put a garland around his neck.
Police investigations revealed that Maheswar Reddy had differences with one Lakshmi Narayana, a local BJP leader and a former rowdy-sheeter. Shravan, a BJP worker, also had a personal grudge against Lakshmi Narayana. Maheswar Reddy along with Shravan hatched a conspiracy to kidnap Lakshmi Narayana. Lakshmi Narayana's brother Lanka Murali had property disputes with him and to resolve the same, the latter had also approached Maheswar Reddy. Murali also became a part of the conspiracy to kidnap Lakshmi Narayana and his son.
To execute the kidnapping plot, the corporator approached one Puneet Tiwari, a BJP sympathizer and outsourcing employee at the State Secretariat and promised to give him money. Puneet took the help of his friends, including students P Manjunath, K Pavan Kumar, R Hemanth, software employee Balivada Praneeth and they went to the residence of Lakshmi Narayana in two cars in the early hours of September 1. Since Lakshmi Narayana was not at home, they kidnapped his son Subrahmanyam who was sitting at a Ganesh mandap near his house and took him to Chintapalli in Nalgonda district.
According to the police, in the chats between A3 Puneet Tiwari and Maheshwar Reddy, it was established that Maheshwar Reddy is the key conspirator in the case. Police have registered a case under 363, 364,367, 342,324 read with 120 B as per the IPC. Police have also said that there is another similar case of kidnap against the BJP corporator.
The victim's parents lodged a complaint with the police, who swung into action and with the help of CCTV footage traced the victim and accused near Chintapalli. The police rescued the victim and arrested the kidnappers on September 2.
(With IANS inputs)