Nagendra Reddy murder case: The bloody trail of a psychopath

Nagendra Reddy, son of Madana Mohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, faced 13 charges — some of them relating to cold-blooded murder — before inspector Balegowda ended his terror run with a bullet on Tuesday morning.

His first known crime was the murder of his business partner and friend in the United Kingdom, Radhakrishna Chepoor. The decapitated body of Chepoor was found on October 29, 2004 in a house on Revensdale Road in Hounslow, a London suburb.

The Scotland Yard, which took up the investigation, had narrowed down the probe to Nagendra, who was in a financial dispute with the slain man. Even before the authorities in that country could arrest him, he had fled to India.

The British police, however, continued their efforts, and through the Interpol, contacted the city police, after his arrest on January 22, 2005, for another murder.

The beheaded body of Nagendra’s childhood friend and techie Rajesh Artham was found in a room of Mahalaxmi Deluxe Lodge at Balepet, Majestic.

It was found that he was murdered for passing lewd comments on Nagendra’s sister at a New Year’s eve party. Both the murders carried the signature of Nagendra. He had taken away the heads and thumbs of his victims, in a bid to prevent the police from identifying the bodies.

In both instances, he tried to incinerate the body parts, albeit unsuccessfully.

Nagendra proved too smart for the police, and escaped from custody. Realising that Interpol was closing in on him, he slashed his wrist, and got admitted to the Victoria Hospital. He escaped custody while in treatment on August 7, 2006.

After escaping from judicial custody, Nagendra went to Hyderabad, where he stole a four-wheeler from Afzalgunj police limits, and committed a robbery in Samarpet. The Hyderabad police caught him in 2008, and handed him over to their counterparts in Bangalore.

Once again in the familiar confines of the central prison, Nagendra, spread his tentacles out of the jail through his henchmen and other rowdies in the city. He had been credited with starting the trend of remote controlling operations from the prison through his henchmen, Shabeer Pasha, Imram Pasha and others.

Police said his henchmen waylaid cabbies and escaped with the vehicles.

Two cabbies —Ravi and Imthiyaz — were unfortunate and lost their lives, while another driver, Arun escaped death in Maddur.

While Ravi was killed in Sarjapur police station limits, Imthiyaz was murdered in Sulibele. The authorities shifted him to the central jail at Hindgala in Belgaum in a bid to snap his criminal ties.

The move, however, proved fatal to a district armed constable, Chandrakanth Shankar Kamble, who was fatally stabbed on May 10, 2009.

Kamble was the lone sentry guarding Nagendra in a Belgaum hospital, where the psychopath had been undergoing treatment for slit wrists. On that fateful day, Kamble had allowed a man, Uttam Singh, to visit Nagendra, who armed the prisoner with a knife. The constable was killed when he tried to prevent his escape.

After his escape, Nagendra shifted his area of operation to Visakhapatnam, where he murdered a driver, Manikoti Govind, and escaped with his vehicle. Though he was later arrested, he obtained bail on fake surety.

Nagendra, it has been suspected, escaped to Maoist dominated areas in Nepal, Orissa or Assam, and was untraceable for a long period, till a police team headed by assistant commissioner of police BN Nyamgowda gunned him down.