The Hindu : When cops played `gangster'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 31, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

When cops played `gangster'

By Our Staff Reporter

NIZAMABAD MAY 30. In a gruesome incident, a six-member gang, including two special party policemen, waylaid a hawala operator from Mumbai, abducted and shot him dead before fleeing with Rs. 7 lakhs he was carrying to be distributed to the families of Gulf expatriates in the district.

The police led by the Nizamabad Rural CI, B. Manohar, nabbed the two police constables along with four others after thorough investigations. Though the incident occurred on May 18, the district police in one of the best pieces of investigation, cracked the mystery and rounded up six persons including the two police constables. The police which took up investigation got clues about the involvement of two constables and four civilians, who were actively involved in hawala operations known as `hundi' in local parlance.

This is the first incident wherein a hawala operator has been abducted and eliminated. On earlier occasions, some hawala operators were threatened and forced to part with money. The victims did not dare to lodge a complaint with the police due to the fear of harassment.

The Superintendent of Police, Shanka Brata Bagchi, told The Hindu on Friday that the victim, Gulbaram Posaji Choudary, a hawala operator of the Kamatipura area of Mumbai, assigned the task of distributing the illegal money transferred from the Gulf, was travelling in a private luxury bus from Mumbai to Armoor, when two motorcycle-borne persons carrying a weapon stopped the vehicle near Mamidipalli under Makloor police station. The duo, claiming to be ID party police, flashed their identity cards as a proof and checked the vehicle. They accosted the victim, who was allegedly in possession of Rs. 7 lakhs.

Posaji was forcibly taken away by the police personnel. The ID party police allegedly acted at the behest of local hawala operators -- Rathod Mohan, Badavath Kishan, Badavath Bheema and Appala Rajanna of Jakranpalli mandal. The local hawala operators reportedly got a tip off about the travel plans of Posaji and accordingly planned to make a neat killing. The local hawala operators, who had been arrested on more than one occasion, passed on the information to the two constables, who accomplished the task neatly.

Relatives of the kidnapped victim got tense when they realised that the money was not handed over to the designated persons. They rushed to Nizamabad and lodged a complaint in the Makloor police station. The case was assigned to the Nizamabad Rural CI by the Nizamabad DSP, Shaik Shariffuddin. The police parties which got into act got a clue about the involvement of the two policemen.

Further probe resulted in the nabbing of two police personnel along with the four civilians.

It was during sustained interrogation of the police personnel that they spilled the beans. The ID party police along with local hawala operators, after kidnapping the victim on May 18 shared the booty. Fearing that the victim if let off would identify them, the gang members hired an autorickshaw and took him to the Daggi forest area where he was shot dead and the body abandoned.

Special police parties which fanned out in the Daggi forest area on the directions of the SP, recovered the highly decomposed body late last night. The police officials visited the scene of the offence and made arrangements for the shifting of the body for post-mortem.

The SP said all the six had been arrested and the two constables -- Malavath Mohan and Chinnabadi Kistaiah alias Christopher -- placed under suspension pending departmental enquiry. They were remanded to judicial custody.

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