(S.Ravi Seshu)
A ghastly road accident that took the lives of a high profile politician’s son and his two young friends almost five years ago too was well utilized by the dreaded mafia leader, Nayeem, to terrorize the prospect victims of extortion.
On December 20, 2011, the son of former minister and Congress MLA Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, Prateek Reddy, his classmate, Sujit Kumar, son of a slain police officer and Chandra Reddy (all aged 19 years) died in a road accident on the Outer Ring Road when they were returning from their Engineering college. Police then said that the Skoda car (AP 24 AH 9999) which was reportedly being driven by Chandra Reddy rammed into the road divider when he tried to avoid sheep crossing the road. Due to the impact, the car got swerved and took a somersault before collapsing on the road side.
While the trio died on the spot, their friend Aroha Reddy of Kompally sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a private hospital in Kukatpally before being shifted to KIMS.
This accident left a lot of misery to Komatireddy’s family and had an impact on Venkat Reddy’s way of life.
A complaint filed by a businessman against Nayeem, who was killed by police on August 8, dropped a bombshell on Komatireddy family. The businessman told police that Nayeem had threatened that his son would also meet the same fate of Venkata Reddy’s son if he failed to cough up Rs.1 cr. “We will kill your son and will project it as a road accident without giving a scope for suspicion as we did in the case of Komatireddy Venkat Reddy’s son,” Nayeem reportedly warned. The businessman said to have produced a telephonic conversation he had with Nayeem on this issue.
Since Komatireddy brothers had a tiff with Nayeem, the extortionist’s threat carried some credence. However, Komatireddy family didn’t make any comment on this issue that cropped up in the form of a complaint.
“It seems that Nayeem used the accident to create terror in the mind of the businessman. When we checked with Komatireddy Venkat Reddy to know whether he found any foul play in the road accident, he didn’t react,” a journalist close to the leader said.
