Hyderabad: Police bust gang posing as cops; three arrested

Hyderabad: Kukatpally Housing Board (KPHB) police on Wednesday arrested three of a five-member gang on the charges of kidnapping a businessman while posing as cops.

The police seized a toy pistol, two daggers, a pair each of police and Army uniform.

The accused have been identified as Nagaraju Karthikeya Raghuvarma alias Major Karthik, B Deepak Kumar, G Anil Kumar, whereas two other accused—Swamy Satyanarayana and Srinu—are absconding.

Karthikeya Raghu Verma is originally from Kommu Chirala village, West Godavari. He applied to join the army in 2017 but was not successful. After this, he bought an army uniform and a police uniform. Wearing an army uniform; went to his village and campaigned as an army officer.

A city-based businessman, T. Dileep mortgaged his car to Satyanarayana for Rs 15,000 on January 27. During this, he took information about Dileep and on this basis, five accused kidnapped him on February 1.

Then, he was taken to Jaggareddygudem in West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. After this, they demanded Rs 5 lakh ransom to set him free and forcibly took away 50 thousand rupees, cellphone and car from him.

After reaching Hyderabad, the victim lodged a complaint with the complaint KPHB police, based on which three of the five accused were arrested.