Peeved at slow pace of probe, Balineni surrenders gunmen

Ongole: The forged registration documents scam unearthed in Ongole put the police department in the crossfire of ruling and opposition parties. While the opposition parties are claiming that police are being manipulated by the ruling party leaders, YSRCP top leader and Ongole MLA Balineni Srinivasa Reddy surrendered his gunmen accusing the police of not heeding his advice to arrest all people involved in the scam. Based on reliable information, the Ongole police arrested Chitirala Purnachandra Rao and three others from Ongole on September 26. The police seized a huge quantity of blank stamp papers with past dates, seals of stamp vendors, tahsildar offices, registrar offices, panchayat offices, birth and death certificates and other important documents from their possession.

In view of seriousness of case, district collector A S Dinesh Kumar and SP Malika Garg appointed a special investigation team with additional SP (admin) K Nageswara Rao, Ongole DSP V Narayana Swamy Reddy, Darsi DSP T Ashok Vardhan, several CIs and officials from departments concerned as members.

On October 16, the SIT arrested another three people in the case related to forged documents. The Ongole DSP said that they arrested a total of seven people, out of the total of 19 prime suspects.

He said that they are after the people involved in the scam and will nab them all soon. The busting of the gang which supplied forged registration documents to sell, occupy and litigate valuable properties and vacant lands in the district created commotion among people.

After SP Malika Garg invited the public to come forward if they suspect their documents, the police department received about 125 documents so far and 10 cases were registered by Tuesday. The suspects in the case are said to be close aides of political leaders from the ruling and opposition parties and from different communities.

In a meeting a week ago, MLA Balineni Srinivasa Reddy asked the collector and SP to take all measures to arrest all the involved people, even if some of them are from the YSRCP and claim to be his followers. He wanted them to speed up the investigation and do justice to the victims.

However, on Tuesday, he wrote a letter to the DGP that the police were not conducting the investigation in a speedy manner as he advised and in protest, he surrendered his gunmen.

When contacted, SP Malika Garg told The Hans India the political leaders from the ruling and opposition parties are making false accusations against the police. She said that they are under no pressure from any leader or party, and the SIT is working round-the-clock on the case. “I will submit a report on the surrender of gunmen by the Ongole MLA, along with the facts and findings so that my senior officials can respond on it,” she said. The SP said it was the police that raided the house of the prime accused and arrested him apart from seizing forged documents. “The documents seized and ones received from the public are of different lands. They needed to be forensically verified, and the team should interact with the people concerned. As the number of cases rose to 10, we have deputed two more CIs for the investigation. We can’t set a deadline, but assure that all the accused will be arrested,” she explained.