Hyderabad: Two days after being sent to judicial custody in connection with the Madras Regiment armoury theft in Bolarum, retired havildar U Mallesh was moved from prison to a hospital on Sunday for treatment of liver and kidney complications.
According to The Times of India, the ailments surfaced during the routine full-body medical check-up conducted when Mallesh entered Chanchalguda prison as a remand prisoner. The check-up findings prompted his shift to hospital care. Prison officials, quoted by Times of India, said doctors consulted on Monday expected to discharge him within a day or two. News of the hospitalisation only became public on Monday night.
Mallesh, a former havildar with the 20 Battalion, Madras Regiment, who was discharged from service on June 30, was arrested on Friday over the theft of rifles, pistols and ammunition from the unit’s armoury on the intervening night of August 30-31. He was produced before a magistrate the same day and remanded to judicial custody. Prior to his arrest, he had been questioned by multiple state and central agencies. Police recovered the stolen weapons from locations in Nagarkurnool district and have said disgruntlement over his early retirement may have been behind the theft.
The case has taken a fresh turn with Bollarum police moving a petition before a local court on Tuesday, seeking Mallesh’s custodial interrogation for 10 days. The petition has not yet come up for hearing.
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