The Bowenpally kidnap case is taking more serious turns each passing day. One by one, almost all members of Bhuma Akhila Priya family are getting booked under one section or another. In the latest instance, an FIR is booked against her brother Jagat Vikhyat Reddy.
Already, the Hyderabad police have booked Akhila Priya’s husband Bhargava Ram and his relatives as well. The police kept a close watch at the Bhargava Ram parents’ house as well. There were allegations that Bhargava Ram and Jagat Vikhyat Reddy had directly participated in the kidnap incident.
Whatever be the objectives, the Telangana Government is tightening the noose around the Bhuma family which has emerged as a major strength for the TDP in Kurnool district. Akhila Priya has been denied bail and she is sent to Chanchalguda jail on 14 days judicial remand. Her sister Mounika Reddy is now leading their family followers and she is accusing top people in positions of power of running a conspiracy against their family.
Now, the Bhuma family is saying that they were targetted only to grab their Hafeezpet lands since they lost both their parents.

The arrest of former Andhra Pradesh minister Bhuma Akhila Priya for her alleged involvement in the kidnapping of businessman Praveen Rao and his two brothers in Hyderabad has brought spotlight back on the role of powerful politicians from Rayalaseema in “settling” land disputes in Hyderabad.

Police have also taken into custody A.V. Subba Reddy, an aide of Akhila Priya’s family and are on the lookout for her husband Bhargav Ram and other accused in the sensational kidnapping of Praveen Rao, a businessman and former badminton player and his two brothers.

The incident has also brought into focus the role played by Akhila Priya’s father and former MP Bhuma Nagi Reddy in settling the disputes over lands in and around Hyderabad. Nagi Reddy, who passed away in 2017, was allegedly known for using strong arm tactics for the “settlements”.

According to police, the kidnapping is related to 25 acres of prime land in Hafeezpet near the information technology cluster of Hitec City. Praveen Rao’s family had purchased the land in 2016.

“There were some issues on the land, which was mediated by Subba Reddy with the assistance of Nagi Reddy. After the issues got resolved, understanding between Praveen and Subba Reddy was executed. But, Subba Reddy did not execute his terms of understanding with Nagi Reddy. After the death of Nagi Reddy, his daughter Akhila Priya approached Praveen for share in the land. When Praveen stated that he has completed the transaction with Subba Reddy and requested her to approach him, she started threatening him,” police said.

Akhila’s brother Jagat Vikyat Reddy, however, claimed that the piece of land at Hafeezpet belonged to them and there was a dispute over it. “After the death of our father, some people colluded with Subba Reddy. There are many powerful people involved in it,” he said.

Akhila’s sister Mounika Reddy alleged that Akhila Priya was arrested without any evidence. She said police showed over enthusiasm in the case due to political pressure.

Initially, police named Subba Reddy as the main accused in the case and Akhila Priya as the second accused. However, in the remand report, the former minister was made accused number one.

Denying Akhila’s involvement in kidnapping, her brother and sister appealed to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to do justice. They alleged that their family is being tortured.

After the kidnapping and arrest of Akhila, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said the police will not tolerate such organised crimes in Telangana.

“This is a warning to all criminals. The law of the land is firm in Telangana and we will not tolerate what was happening earlier,” he said in an obvious reference to instances of ‘land settlements’ that used to happen in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Akhila Priya, who hails from Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, is daughter of Nagi Reddy, who was MP from Nandyal between 1996 and 2004. He was one of the politicians from the region who played a key role in settling land disputes in Hyderabad when the city witnessed a boom in real estate market.

The kidnapping case also brought into focus the relationship between the families of Nagi Reddy and Praveen Rao. The latter’s father Krishna Rao allegedly used to work for Nagi Reddy by scouting lands stuck in dispute.

After the sudden death of Nagi Reddy in 2017, his children had no information about the properties he had amassed and also about individuals who had title deeds.

Following Nagi Reddy’s death, differences had also cropped up between his aide Subba Reddy and Akhila Priya and her siblings over the land dealings.

Former Andhra Pradesh minister Paritala Ravi and his rival Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddelacheruvu Suri were also involved in many land settlements in and around Hyderabad.

Ravi was gunned down by Suri’s men in 2005 in Anantapur. Suri was shot dead in Hyderabad by his aide Bhanukiran in 2011 after differences between them over ownership of some lands.

During the investigations into Suri’s killings, police had found that Bhanukiran owned land worth Rs 140 crore.

Former AP Minister and TDP leader Bhuma Akhila Priya was arrested and produced before the court on the charges of kidnapping three persons. She was remanded to 14 days judicial custody. The Hyderabad police shifted her to Chanchalguda women’s jail. She was named A2 in the kidnapping of Praveen Rao, Sunil Rao and Navin Rao.
The kidnapping reportedly took place in connection with an old land dispute. This was relating to 25 acres in Hafizpeta and it was worth over Rs. 500 Cr now. AV Subba Reddy, a close associate of Akhila Priya family, was named as A1 in the case. The Hyderabad police got alerted immediately after the kidnap and sounded alert in AP and Kurnool district as well.
However, the kidnappers left their victims at Moinabad as they were not able to find a safe passage. Based on the complaint of the victims’ family, the police immediately picked up Akhila Priya from her house.
The police were searching for AV Subba Reddy, Akhilay Priya’s husband Bharava Ram and others as well. They had already questioned the former Minister for a few hours at the Begumpeta police quarters.
Akhila Priya was pregnant and her lawyers had objected to her arrest. Her bail application would come up for hearing on Thursday.

Hyderabad police on Wednesday detained former Andhra Pradesh minister Bhooma Akhila Priya and her husband Bhargava Ram for questioning in connection with the kidnapping of former badminton player Praveen Rao and his two brothers.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader and her husband were picked up from their residence in Kukatpally hours after the trio were rescued by the police on the city outskirts. The couple was being questioned at an undisclosed location.

Praveen Rao, Sunil Rao and Naveen Rao, who are relatives of of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s personal assistant, were kidnapped on Tuesday night from their residence in Bowenpally here by a group of people posing as income tax officers.

The victims were reportedly traced in Moinabad near the city. Police have taken at least eight accused into the custody and were looking for others.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said the police cracked the kidnapping case. He said details will be announced later in the day.

The incident is related to a land dispute and the kidnappers forced Praveen Rao and his brothers to sign a few documents.

The three brothers were kidnapped in a filmy style from their residence in Bowenpally in Secunderabad on Tuesday night. A group of 15-20 people came to their house and introduced themselves as income tax officials. They even produced fake search warrants and two of them were in police uniform.

Praveen contacted his another brother Pratap Rao, a lawyer living in Mahabubnagar. Pratap Rao was monitoring CCTV footage from his mobile phone and since the ‘IT sleuths’ had produced the search warrants, he asked his brothers to cooperate in the search.

They took mobile phones, laptops and other gadgets of all the family members saying this was part of the procedure followed during searches.

Pratap Rao said after 15-20 minutes the CCTV cameras were switched off and when he tried to contact his brothers they were not reachable. He grew suspicious and contacted income tax authorities, who clarified that the department was not conducting any search. He informed family friends MP Maloth Kavitha and state minister Sriniva Goud, who alerted the top police officials.

An alert was sounded in Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates. Police in all districts of Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh were also alerted.

The accused whisked away Praveen Rao, Naveen Rao and Sunil Rao with them after locking other family members in a room.

According to Pratap Rao, his brothers were blindfolded by kidnappers. They were taken to a farm house on Chilkur road.

It was immediately not clear if the police rescued the victims or the kidnappers set them free. The details are likely to be announced by the police later in the day.

Praveen Rao and his brothers returned home early morning. Pratap Rao said they provided information to police about those whom they suspected to be involved in kidnapping.

The lawyer said their brother had nothing to do with the land dealing and the accused resorted to kidnapping due to some misunderstanding.

He did not reveal the identity of those involved, saying it was for police to announce the details.

The Jagan Reddy government has filed already two cases in Allagadda rural police station against Bhargava Ram, husband of former minister Bhuma Akhila Priya. Rural SI went to arrest Bhargava in Hyderabad. However, Bhargava tried to avoid the arrest. Following this, Allagadda Rural SI filed a complaint in the Gacchibowli police station. Bhargava was charged with obstructing the SI from discharging his official duties. The SI complained that Bhargava tried to hit him with his car when he was approaching to arrest him.

Akhila Priya family is being targetted ever since her aggressive opposition to the uranium mining and search activities in Rayalaseema region. Her agitation has got support from the Left parties and several civil society organisations. Film celebrities have already expressed concern how uranium mining would spoil the waters of the Krishna river. This would hurt the interests of people of the two Telugu states.

YCP Circar is filing one case after another against TDP leaders who are subjected to mental harassment and humiliation. Former Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao committed suicide because of the YCP harassment. But still cases are continuing to be booked.