'Clean chit to 25 Telangana cops in alleged links with gangster

HYDERABAD: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telangana police, probing renegade slain Maoist-turned-gangster Nayeem's nexus with politicians and police, have given clean chit to all 25 police officers whose names had surfaced during investigation. Y. Nagi Reddy, Inspector General of Police, SIT, informed an activist in a reply under Right to Information (RTI) Act that none of the police officers has been cited as accused in any case.

Forum for Good Governance Secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy was informed that charge sheets were filed in 173 cases but courts were yet to pass final orders. The RTI reply also says eight cases were withdrawn/deleted from the purview of the SIT.

"No police officer is cited as accused in any case. Eight politicians are involved in 139 cases," the reply reads. The petitioner wanted to know the number of cases in which action was initiated against police officers and politicians.

The names of two Additional Superintendents of Police, seven Deputy Superintendents of Police, 13 inspectors, two head constables and one constable had surfaced for their alleged links with Nayeem and his associates. Nayeem alias Mohammed Nayeemuddin was killed in an alleged exchange of fire with police in Shadnagar town on August 8, 2016.

The most wanted gangster was involved in land grabbing, abduction and extortion and he allegedly had links with politicians and police officers. The SIT was formed to probe the illegal activities of Nayeem, his associates and his alleged links with the officials.

After receiving RTI reply, the Forum for Good Governance appealed to Governor DrTamilisaiSoundararajan to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It alleged attempts to dilute the SIT investigation.

The activist alleged that the SIT has been doing a 'shabby and suspicious' job right from its inception. "About 240 cases were registered after the encounter of Nayeem. It is stated that in 173 cases charge sheets were filed, but even after four years not a single case was brought to its logical conclusion," Padmanabha Reddy said.

"It is a case of a deadly combination of police, politicians, and gangster coming together and committing atrocities on innocent people, their lands grabbed and any resistance, people were murdered," he added. (IANS)

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