Tirupathi Reddy left his home for MRO on 13 July, and then went missing, making his wife suspect that a BRS MLA had kidnapped him.
BJP leader M Tirupathi Reddy. (Supplied)
A senior BJP functionary in Telangana has been traced five days after he had gone missing. His wife Mukkera Sujatha said Tirupathi Reddy, a member of the BJP state committee, contacted her over the phone on Tuesday, 18 July.
“He called me and said he was going to the Petbasheerabad Police Station. As of now, I am awaiting more details,” she told South First on Tuesday afternoon before leaving for the police station.
Earlier, she had accused BRS MLA Hanumantha Rao of kidnapping Reddy over a property dispute. The MLA denied the allegations.
Sujatha lodged a man-missing complaint with the Alwal police on 13 July.
Station House Officer (SHO) of the Alwal Police Station, J Upender, told South First that Sujatha had informed them of his return. As per reports, Reddy was found in Vijayawada.
Earlier, the Cyberabad police had formed four teams to trace Reddy. They claimed to have traced 40-year-old Reddy’s movements a few times with the help of CCTV visuals.
Reddy, who was living at the Nagarjuna Colony of Kushaiguda area in Hyderabad, hails from Jangaon district, some 80 km from Hyderabad. He is in the real-estate business.
The police’s First Information Report (FIR) said Sujatha had last seen Reddy when he left for the Mandal Revenue Office (MRO) with their driver Ramesh around 11 am on 13 July.
Ramesh said he dropped Reddy at the MRO gate and left, the FIR, which South First accessed, said.
BJP leader M Tirupathi Reddy. (Twitter)
At 2:15 pm, Ramesh informed another worker Venkat that there was no sign of Reddy when he returned.
“He told our driver Ramesh to pay the electricity bill. After I was informed at 3:44 pm. I searched for my husband and asked from our relatives and friends. But there has been no sign of him so far,” Sujatha told South First.
She added that a property under Reddy’s name at Alwal has been caught in a dispute.
“My husband had a dispute with BRS leader Mynampally Hanumanthu Rao over the 3.5 acres in Alwal. He also received seven to eight calls from the BRS leader last month. That is why I suspect him,” Sujatha said.
A three-time MLA, Rao now represents the Malkajiri Assembly constituency.
He had earlier represented Ramayampet in 2008 (the constituency was later abolished) and then from Medak in 2009. He was also elected as a member of the legislative council in 2017.
Medchal’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) G Sandeep earlier said four teams were formed to look for Reddy.
BRS MLA from Malkajgiri Mynampally Hanumanthu Rao. (Creative Commons)
“After scanning the CCTV footage, we found that he was initially at the Vandana Hotel on the Ghatkesar highway near Bhonigir on Thursday, 13 July, evening,” SHO Upender told South First.
Reddy reportedly took an auto-rickshaw from Gachibowli to Ghatkesar.
Upender said Reddy was last spotted at Narketpalle in the Nalgonda district. “Tirupathi Reddy took a lift from his friend, who has been detained for questioning the same day. We suspect that he took a bus to Suryapet from Narketpalle, and then possibly to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.”
The police ruled out the possibility of kidnapping, “The friend who gave Tirupathi Reddy lift till Narketpalle confirmed that Reddy had gone on his own volition,” the SHO said, adding that the investigators were expecting Reddy back home in “three to four days”.
The officer replied in the negative when asked if MLA Rao has been questioned. “We are not looking at that angle (kidnap) and haven’t questioned him.”
Speaking to reporters on 14 July, Rao expressed ignorance over Reddy’s disappearance and said the allegations against him were baseless.
“I haven’t even seen his face except in pictures. He is a big fraudster and I am digging out all the cases he has been charged with. He has kidnap cases charged against him at the LB Nagar police station. I will bring this to the public soon. I will prove with evidence that all these allegations against me are false.”
South First tried to reach out to Rao for further clarity but the calls went unanswered. The story will be updated as soon as we receive a response.
Meanwhile, extending support to Reddy, BJYM national treasurer and RTI activist PM Saiprasad alleged that Rao was behind the kidnap.
“The MLA brazenly assaults innocents and grabs their lands. This is no different from Razakars looting our ancestors earlier. Rao heads a syndicate of land grabbers and goons,” the Deccan Chronicle quoted him as saying.
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