HYDERABAD: Twenty four hours after a woman techie was robbed at gunpoint inside an ATM in Yousufguda, the Task Force sleuths arrested the man responsible for the offence from a hostel in Ameerpet on Thursday.
The accused is 21-year-old Pedapally Shiva Kumar Reddy, who hails from Kadapa district.
A 9MM country-made pistol, six live rounds, a button knife, five mobile phones, three ATM cards were recovered from him. Though the police are yet to interrogate him thoroughly and will do so after seeking his police custody after being produced in the court, they believe that Reddy was operating alone and was reportedly planning more such offences in the city. On Wednesday, Reddy robbed 24-year-old Chinta Sri Lalitha, a software employee, when she went to withdraw money from an ATM kiosk at Yousufguda. The accused fired into the wall to scare her, and took away her gold chain, earrings.
The accused, a class X pass, is a native of Vallur village in Kadapa district. He shifted base to Hyderabad three years ago in search of job, city Police Commissioner M Mahendar Reddy told a press conference on Thursday. Reddy told the investigating officers that he was used to a lavish lifestyle, and decided to commit the robbery for easy money, the commissioner said.
As part of the plan, he recced the ATM kiosk and its surroundings, and waited for women or elderly people to visit the kiosk, and Lalitha became the victim.
‘’As of now, we suspect that he was operating alone but we will interrogate him thoroughly to find out if he has any accomplices,’’ sources said.
“The accused claims it was his first robbery, and he bought the pistol through his acquaintance. But there is a need to verify these aspects,” the police said.