HYDERABAD: Jagan Mohan Reddy’s close aide Mangali Krishna, who is said to be involved in procuring fire arms and indulging in land settlements with P Bhanu Kiran, the alleged killer of warlord Maddelacheruvu Suri, was nabbed by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday.
Krishna, convicted in a bomb case, had been evading the police ever since Bhanu was arrested after more than a year after allegedly killing Suri.
According to CID officials, Krishna was nabbed near the Jadcherla checkpost in Mahbubnagar district while trying to sneak into Hyderabad. He had reportedly been on the lam in Kadapa district and was on his way to the city when he was nabbed, sources said. A firearm was reportedly seized from him but there was no confirmation of it. ;
Sources said Krishna send feelers to police and that his ‘arrest’ was pre-planned.
In his confession to CID, Bhanu told investigators that he and his associates Mangali Krishna, Sudhakar Naidu and others procured country-made firearms for the purpose of extortion and land settlements.
“A total of nine firearms were procured by Bhanu Kiran, Mangali Krishna and others but only four of them have been recovered, two from Bhanu,’’ police said.
Krishna is said to have been involved in more than 23 land settlements and extortion cases. He reportedly was involved in major dispute settlements like the 2005-2006 issue wherein contractors were threatened from submitting tenders for the Handri-Neeva project. The contract worth `178 cr was allotted in name of J K Constructions, GVR Constructions, Coastal Constructions.
Subsequently Bhanu and his associates ensured that the work went to persons from whom they allegedly collected `18.5 crore.
In 2006, Bhanu, Krishna and Madhu Mohan Reddy interfered in a dispute over a 7-acre site near Chirec Public School and collected `1.20 crore from Sivaram Krishna, a film producer and others.