3 cops among 4 arrested for theft at police station in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool

TIRUPATI: Police on Saturday arrested four people, including three police personnel, in connection with the theft of valuables and cash worth Rs 75 lakh at Talul police station in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool.

Kurnool SP Siddharth Kaushal said the four accused arrested by the police were identified as L Amaravathi (47), DV Ramana Babu (42), B Vijaya Bhaskar (46) and a gold merchant B Bharat Simha (44).

Briefing reporters about the case details, the SP said that on 27.02.2021, circle inspector Vikram Simha and his team intercepted a car heading to Salem in Tamil Nadu from Hyderabad at the Panchalingala checkpost and seized 105kg of silver and Rs 2.05 lakh in cash after the inmates in the car, identified as Santhana Bharati and Govinda Ra,j failed to produce relevant documents.

While the incident was intimated to the commercial taxes department, they levied a fine of Rs 35 lakh, which the Tamil Nadu men were reluctant to pay.

In the meantime, the seized silver articles weighing 105kg and Rs 2.05 lakh cash were kept in the safe custody of the Kurnool Taluk police.

DV Ramana Babu, a writer who had a hunch that the case would drag on for an extended period, made off with all the cash and appropriated it for his personal use.

Almost a year after he got transferred from the Kurnool Taluk police station, one fine day, DV Ramana Babu approached L Amaravathi who was working as a writer at the Kurnool Taluk police station and returned the stolen cash.

DV Ramana Babu told Amaravathi that the traders from whom the silver articles were seized, were reluctant to pay the hefty fine levied by the commercial taxes department. This is where Amaravathi hatched a plan to steal away the entire silver articles from the police station.

She shared her idea with her police constable husband B Vijaya Bhaskar and the duo managed to steal away the silver articles from the Kurnool Taluk police station in May 2022, when there was nobody at the police station except for a night sentry.

Amaravathi and her husband Vijaya Bhaskar then approached the latter's brother Bharat Simha who owns a jewellery shop to melt down the silver and sell it.

The trio managed to dispose of some quantity of silver and encase it.

The police personnel's heist at their own police station could never have been exposed if the TN-based traders never came back to claim back their seized goods.

But when the TN-based traders Santhana Bharati and Govinda Raj cleared off their penalty-linked issue with the commercial taxes department and arrived at the Kurnool Taluk police station with a release order on the 25th of last month, the present circle inspector of the Kurnool Taluk police station was shocked to realize that the seized silver articles and cash worth Rs 75 lakh was stolen from the police station.

After Kurnool SP ordered an enquiry into the episode and appointed DSP KV Mahesh as the investigating officer, the special team apprehended all the four accused linked to the case on Saturday and recovered Rs 10 lakh cash and 81.5kg of silver from their possession.

Siddharth Kaushal told reporters that further investigation would go on in the case to find out if any others were involved.


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