Former Andhra Pradesh minister detained for role in kidnap of Telangana CM KCR's relatives

By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The city police investigating the kidnapping of former badminton player Praveen Rao and his brothers Sunil Rao and Naveen Rao, who are believed to be relatives of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, have reportedly detained former Andhra Pradesh tourism minister Bhuma Akhil Priya in connection with the case.

The family of the victims had already informed police that Akhila Priya and her husband Bhargav Ram were behind the kidnapping. Police detained her at Kukatpally and are shifting her to Bowenpally police station for further questioning.

It is learned that her husband Bhargav Ram is still absconding.

Police have already detained more than ten persons who were involved in the kidnap and based on the information revealed by them, they have rounded up Akhila Priya. Inquiries so far have revealed that a close family member of Bhargav Ram was among the group of 15 persons who barged into the victims' home impersonating as I-T officers and kidnapped the three brothers.

It was found that Bhargav Ram had been trying to take over the plum land in dispute, which the victims' family had been claiming ownership. The victims claimed that they had produced all relevant documents to Bhargav Ram, informing him that they have clear title possession of the said land, but he had been coercing them to part with the land, which is worth tens of Crores.

Meanwhile, special teams are on the hunt to nab Bhargav Ram and others involved in the kidnapping.

Advocate Pratap Kumar, the elder brother of the three kidnapped men, made an appeal to the accused to sit down for a discussion over the issue. "Resorting to such violent acts is not the way to settle things. As an elder member in the family, I once again appeal to them to have a discussion over the issue and resolve it," he said.

Pratap Kumar also thanked the police department for their swift response to bring back his brothers safely. "This incident shows how effectively the Telangana police department is working and how committed they are," he said.

Without directly naming Bhuma Akhila Priya and her husband Bhargav Ram, he said that they are well aware of the persons behind the kidnapping. Though the facts have been explained to them, time and again the accused were troubling his family members and now they have gone to the extent of kidnapping his three brothers.

Explaining how his brothers were picked up, Pratap said that he was in Mahabubnagar when he got information about some I-T raids at their home. He immediately accessed the CCTV cameras at his home on his mobile phone and saw around 15 people dressed like professionals and a few cops entering their home.

Later, he found that his brothers were missing. He also found from the I-T department that there were no such raids on his home and suspecting that they were kidnapped, he immediately alerted MP M Kavitha, Minister Srinivas Goud and police officials.

Meanwhile, the family members identified a few persons who picked up their brothers as associates of Bhargav Ram.

He said that the suspects made the three brothers sit in three different vehicles and started moving in a different direction. When they asked where they were being taken, they masked the three brothers, confined them forcefully and made them lie on the vehicle floor and abused them.

Later, they drove them to a farmhouse at Chilkur, tied their legs and forced them to sign some documents related to property agreements and blank documents, said Pratap. The victims also told police that all the way en route to the farmhouse, the suspects were taking instructions from their handlers. Even at the farmhouse, when the victims refused to sign documents, they threatened them saying their 'boss' would come to the spot. While signing documents, Praveen noticed some names related to Allagadda and stopped signing further, said Pratap.

He added that the suspects picked up all mobile phones, tablets, watches from their home, without leaving any evidence. They also tried to take away the DVR equipment from the home, but could not, as the CCTV feed is stored on the cloud and he along with his three brothers has access to them on their mobile phones only.