Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Mar 8: A rape, theft and extortion-accused attacked police personnel from the city while they were trying to arrest him on the evening of Tuesday March 7. The police, in retaliation, shot him and injured him in the leg. The incident occurred in outer ring road at Marathhalli.
In this incident, police inspector of HAL station, Sadiq Pasha, sub-inspector, Anand, and another police officer, Manjunath, suffered injuries.
The accused, identified as Shivaram Reddy, has been known to enter women's hostels or paying guest accommodations and commit crimes like rape, extortion and robbery. Because of these activities, he had earned the nickname, Hostel Reddy. Reddy has over ten cases registered against him, and the police had been making efforts to arrest him.
On Tuesday, police got information that Reddy, a resident of Hoskote, was at a spot behind Prestige Tech Park on outer ring road at Marathhalli. Police officials rushed there at around 6.30 pm. On seing the police, Shivaram Reddy took out his knife and indiscriminately attacked the policemen with it and injured him, although the police repeatedly asked him to surrender. Manjunath, attached to Bommanahalli station, then fired at Reddy's leg.
A rowdy sheet had been created for Shivaram Reddy in Electronics City police station in the past. After he forced himself into a paying guest accommodation at Electronics City and raped a software engineer there, he was arrested in 2014 under Goonda Act. He was jailed, and was released two years later in December 2016 on bail. However, he continued with his old habits.
Police personnel said that Shivaram Reddy used to note down women's paying guest accommodations that are not locked and entered them at night. He used to attack the women there. After robbing the valuables in their possessions, he used to rape or sexually exploit them before fleeing.
On March 2 and 4, he had entered women's hostels during the night and committed sexual atrocity on women software engineers there. The aggrieved ladies had filed complaints in the police station the same day. The police, who immediately realized it to be the handiwork of Reddy, had been making efforts to locate and arrest Reddy, said additional police commissioner, Hemant Nimbalkar. Nimbalkar added that the police had to fire at Reddy in self defence.