Four cops of Andhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP) were arrested and sent to judicial remand for allegedly kidnapping a businessman to extort ‘hidden treasure’ from him. Among them were two gunmen of Rajya Sabha member Chiranjeevi and IPS officer Shivshankar. Three others, who helped them in this murky episode, have also been arrested and sent to remand.
The accused cops were Addanki Sitaramulu, Uppala Srinivas, Vanam Haribabu and G Gopal. The victim, Koneru Krishna, was reportedly picked up by them from his house in Pitlam on July 11 and taken to Hyderabad where they harassed him about the purported hidden treasure. Sources said the cops along with their accomplices abducted Krishna after one Firoz Khan of Pitlam talked about the ‘huge quantity’ of gold stored by Krishna after he reportedly stumbled upon a hidden treasure in the Pitlam forests.
Sources said the ten member extortion gang, including the four APSP cops, grilled Krishna regarding the whereabouts of the hidden gold. “Unable to tolerate their torture, Krishna told them he had hidden the gold in his house. They took him back to his Pitlam residence. When they did not find any gold, they started harassing Krishna,” a police official said.
Krishna raised an alarm and neighbours came to his rescue. The cops and the kidnappers had fled the spot. Banswada rural CI Prakash Yadav said based on the victim’s complaint; they registered a case and nabbed seven members of the gang, including the accused cops. “We have produced them before the magistrate on Wednesday and remanded them to judicial custody,” he said.
While Sitaramulu was working as a gunman in the security wing of Chiranjeevi, head constable Srinivas was the gunman of IPS officer Shivshankar. Gopal had earlier worked in the chief minister’s security wing, while Haribabu was stationed in Kondapur battalion. All the accused cops have been suspended.
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