Kollam Gangi Reddy, the 53-year-old, is key accused in the assassination bid, on the then united Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, at Alipiri in Chittoor district in 2003, and also accused in almost 27 cases of red sanders smuggling in Rayalaseema and Nellore district.
On May 23rd, last year, Naidu wrote a letter to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, stating that, there is a threat to him, from Gangi Reddy, but the state police could not keep track of him and thus let him flee to Dubai.
Naidu further urged the Governor, to direct DGP, to take steps to issue a red-corner notice against Gangi Reddy, resulted in police swinging into action.
Since 2002, Gangi Reddy was said to be smuggling red sanders and was named as an accused in a case of seizure of over 2,000 red sander logs worth over Rs. 5 crore from a godown in Veldurthi town in Dhone constituency in Kurnool district on March 4th, last year.
Regarding that, Gangi Reddy was arrested by Kurnool police officials on April 4 last year, and remanded to judicial custody by the court at Dhone.
He later got the bail on May 16th last year. Meanwhile, as TDP formed the government in AP, Gangi considered it as a threat and fled from India.
Last year, Gangi Reddy got a non-bailable warrant and a red-corner notice from Dhone court. After that, the State government transferred all the 27 red sander cases against Gangi Reddy to the State CID.
In 1992, Gangi Reddy was charged with an industrialist Ambati Muralimohan Reddy’s murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998, for allegedly making an attempt on Ambati Subba Reddy, brother of the deceased in Hyderabad.
He was even accused in the case of fake birth certificate, fake Tatkal passport, after he applied for it, claiming to have lost the original one.
Gangi Reddy’s meeting with Sahul Hameed, an international kingpin and Venkatarama Raju, a notorious red sander smuggler, led him to red sanders smuggling.
In the last march, the Enforcement Directorate registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Gangi Reddy, taking the cognizance of an FIR filed by the CID.
Gangi Reddy owns a Baryte mine at Mangampet, a petrol pump at Pullampet, vast stretches of land and luxurious bungalows in various cities in Rayalaseema.
Gangi Reddy was arrested by Interpol sleuths after he was detained in Mauritius airport in February this year, thwarting his attempt to fly to Sri Lanka, as the passport authorities impounded his passport on a charge of furnishing a fake birth date document.
Currently, a team led by the Director-General of CID C. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, brought the notorious smuggler Gangi Reddy, from Mauritius to Hyderabad yesterday.
(Video Source: Sakshi TV)
By Phani Ch
