A Hyderabad police officer, who was booked for allegedly kidnapping, raping and threatening a woman, surrendered to the Rachakonda police after he remained absconding for nearly 24 hours. K Nageshwar Rao, Circle Inspector or SHO of Maredpally police station under Hyderabad police, was taken into custody by a Special Operations Team and the Vanasthalipuram police on the night of Sunday, July 10. Nageshwar Rao had been booked under various charges including rape and attempt to murder, based on a complaint from a woman whose husband was employed at Nageshwar Rao’s farmhouse. The Rachakonda police said Nageshwar Rao is being questioned, and the case is being investigated by the Vanasthalipuram Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP).
In a press release, the police had earlier said that Nageshwar Rao had arrested the woman’s husband in a case back in 2018, and later hired him as an employee at his farmhouse. According to reports, the man was arrested in a credit card scam case in 2018, and worked at the inspector’s farmhouse for nearly a year and a half, till February 2021.
According to the complaint, on the night of July 7, Nageshwar Rao trespassed into the couple’s home in Vanasthalipuram, beat the woman up and raped her. When the husband reached home and started to beat the inspector with a stick, Nageshwar then threatened the couple with a revolver and hit her husband on the head with the revolver, her complaint said. The woman also alleged that the inspector threatened them to leave Hyderabad and bundled them up in his vehicle. The three of them were travelling in the car, with the husband driving, when the car met with an accident near Ibrahimpatnam in the early hours of July 8. The couple managed to escape and approach the Vanasthalipuram police under the Rachakonda police commissionerate, where a complaint was filed on the same day.
The woman in her complaint also alleged that earlier, she was forcibly brought to the inspector’s agricultural land without the knowledge of her husband, while he was working at the farmhouse. She said her husband later called Nageshwar Rao and warned that he would inform the inspector’s wife about his behaviour if he didn’t stop disturbing his family. The woman’s complaint said that while the inspector apologised at the time, later, two police officers and some constables took her husband away to the task force office and threatened to file false cases against him if he tried to inform Nageshwar Rao’s family about his actions.
Nageshwar Rao was booked under Sections 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 376(2) (being a police officer commits rape), 307 (attempt to murder), 448 (punishment for house-trespass), 365 (kidnap) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and Section 30 of Arms Act (punishment for contravention of licence or rule). He was also placed under suspension.
According to reports, Nageshwar Rao was previously an inspector with the Task Force which raided the Pudding and Mink pub in Banjara Hills, at the Radisson Blu Hotel in April. Following the raid, the SHO of Banjara Hills police station, Inspector P Shiva Chandra was placed under suspension, and Nageshwar Rao was posted as Banjara Hills CI in his place. Three months later, on June 29, he was transferred to Marredpally police station. On Sunday evening, when Nageshwar Rao was still absconding, several Congress leaders staged a protest at the LB Nagar DCP office demanding Nageshwar Rao’s arrest, alleging that the police were trying to save him.
Meanwhile, former Rajya Sabha MP TG Venkatesh has alleged that a land encroachment case filed against him by Nageshwar Rao back in April was false. Venkatesh alleged that the inspector made false allegations against him expecting to extract money, The New Indian Express reported.