31 arrested in Adibatla dental student kidnap case, woman rescued

In all, 36 people were suspected to have taken part in the kidnap. Of them, 31 were arrested so far . They were booked for kidnap, attempt to murder, rioting, house trespass, etc

The Rachakonda police on Saturday arrested 31 persons in connection with the alleged kidnap of a 24-year-old woman dental student but the prime accused is still absconding, officials said.

According to the police, the woman was abducted from her home hours before her wedding engagement at Manneguda near Adibatla village on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Friday.

Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat said the woman was rescued within six hours of the kidnap, but the prime accused, K Naveen Reddy, 29, a businessman, was still absconding and efforts were on to arrest him at the earliest.

According to the police, Reddy along with dozens of his associates armed with sticks, stones and iron rods, barged into the woman’s house, assaulted her father and other relatives, ransacked her house, damaged the furniture and vehicles on the premises and abducted her on Friday afternoon, hours before her engagement with another man.

Upon receiving the information, the Adibatla police reached the spot and took up an investigation. Based on the eyewitness accounts and CCTV footage, the police identified some of the assailants, including Reddy.

To track the alleged kidnappers and rescue the woman as early as possible, five special teams from the Rachankonda police station began their investigation.

According to the police, after a couple of hours, they were able to track the location of the woman based call she made to her father and found her in Nalgonda district about 100 km away from her house.

“We were able to rescue her within six hours and apprehend 16 people immediately. Based on the information given by them, we arrested another 15 people by Saturday evening,” the police commissioner said.

In all, 36 people were suspected to have taken part in the kidnap. Of them, 31 were arrested so far . They were booked for kidnap, attempt to murder, rioting, house trespass, etc, the commissioner said. “We have produced them before the court and remanded them to 14-day judicial custody,” he added.

Stating that the woman is safe, the commissioner said nobody will be spared and a fast-track trial will be conducted in the case. “We are also invoking the preventive detention against them,” he said.

Further, a special operation team of the L B Nagar zone under Rachakonda police seized two vehicles used for kidnapping the woman.

According to the preliminary investigation, Reddy, who hailed from Nalgonda district, got acquainted with the woman at a badminton training centre in January 2021. Both of them entered into relationship, which was approved by both families.

According to a police official, both families became close but developed some differences after a while following which the woman started keeping Reddy at bay while her parents started looking for other matches.

Interestingly, the investigation also revealed that Reddy filed a case in Ranga Reddy court in September this year stating that he married the woman on August 4, 2021, at a temple in Guntur district. “But her parents requested me not to disclose the details of her marriage till she completed her Bachelor of Dental Sciences course,” he said in the affidavit, which was seen by HT.

Reddy has alleged that he spent a lot of money on the woman and now that she is becoming a doctor, “her parents changed her mind and are trying to marry her to some other guy without giving me a divorce.”