Hyderabad, April 07: A fugitive criminal, who escaped from police escort while being shifted to a court at Warangal from Rajahmundry prison in March this year, was today nabbed by the city police and a country-made weapon with two live rounds and two daggers were recovered.
The nabbed fugitive is an associate of Revolutionary Patriotic Tigers (RPT) founder Patlolla Govardhan Reddy.
Task Force Central Zone sleuths nabbed the accused, Kotha Prabhakar alias Bharath alias Ramu Goud, along with four others, who formed into a gang and resorted to extortions.
Task Force DCP V B Kamalasan Reddy said Prabhakar was involved in the sensational kidnap of the then general manager of Satyam Computers, Satyanarayana, in 2007 for a ransom of Rs 20 lakh. Prabhakar and his associates were nabbed by the city police and was lodged at the Chanchalguda prison when he came in contact with Patlolla Govardhan Reddy and another gangster, Abed Hussain alias Ali Bhai.
“Govardhan Reddy and Ali Bhai engaged the former’s brother, Sudarshan Reddy, Prabhakar and others to kidnap businessmen for ransom.
Coming out of prison, Prabhakar and others tried to kidnap chairman of Country Club, Rajeev Reddy, but were nabbed by the police,’’ Kamalasan Reddy said.
Prabhakar got released on bail in the case and was later involved in an SC/ST Atrocities Act case in Warangal.
Meanwhile, Prabhakar and others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the case related to the kidnap of Satyanarayana and were lodged at Cherlapally prison.
In the prison, Prabhakar had a tussle with gangster, Ayub Khan, and was shifted to Rajahmundry central prison.
“In March this year, he was supposed to be produced before a court with regard to the SC/ST case and was shifted to Warangal with police escort. On March 15, Prabhakar escaped from the Armed headquar ter s , Warangal and came back to the city,’’ Kamalasan Reddy said.
Prabhakar formed a gang of four persons in Hyderabad for extortions and settlements and purchased a country-made firearm.
His gang members include N Anil Kumar, owner of Seesaw Traders at Bellary, T Dharmender of Sainikpuri, T Raju of Ibrahimpatnam and B Madhu of Saidabad.
“Anil Kumar earlier worked as a software engineer in Dubai, later set up a software development centre at Karkhana and finally settled in iron ore business.
Dharmender is his partner in Seesaw Trading,’’ the DCP said.
Dharmender took Rs 18 lakh from a businessman, Dayakar, promising him iron ore at cheaper price and failed to supply it.
As Dayakar pressurised him to return the amount, he hired Prabhakar and others to threaten him and refrain from asking the money back.
Two days back, Prabhakar and others went to Dayakar’s shop at Santoshnagar and threatened him with firearms.
Based on a complaint by Dayakar, the five were nabbed and handed over to the Santoshnagar police.
—Agencies