Hyderabad: Former Andhra Pradesh minister Bhuma Akhila Priya was arrested Wednesday in connection with the kidnapping of a former badminton player and his two brothers. The three were kidnapped over a land dispute, police said. Akhila Priya served as a Tourism Minister in the Telugu Desam (TDP) government in Andhra Pradesh
A group of around 15 people posing as Income Tax sleuths entered the house of Praveen Rao, a former national badminton player. They did so, on the pretext of conducting raids. However, they abducted Praveen and his brothers, sources said. They took them to a farmhouse but later left them at Narsingi after police intensified search to locate them.
After a relative, who had been to a neighbour’s house returned and opened the door, the other family members noticed in the CCTV that the persons took their kin away in three separate vehicles. The family also realised that the persons were not government officials and they had kidnapped the trio, police informed.
The family members alerted the police. They suspected the involvement of their relative AV Subba Reddy, besides Bhuma Akhila Priya, her husband Bhargava Ram and their henchmen and attributed the reason for the kidnapping to be a land dispute, police said.
More than 15 police teams were sent in various directions to trace the brothers and Telangana Police were also in touch with their Andhra Pradesh counterparts. Police carried out CCTV footage analysis and identified the vehicles in which the three brothers were taken away.
Due to police presence and checking on all roads leading to inter-state borders the abductors thought it was not possible to escape. They released the three siblings at Narsingi around 3.30am before fleeing, police said. After the brothers switched on their phones, police located them through tower location, contacted and shifted them to their house.
Meanwhile, Priya was arrested from her residence at Kukatpally here and she is in police custody. Efforts were on nab the others involved in the case.
Police said preliminary investigation revealed that the accused including Priya, her husband and others allegedly planned, conspired, executed the kidnapping following a dispute over a land located at Hafeezpet here.