An unidentified assailant on Wednesday tried to kidnap the managing director of Aurobindo Pharma, Nityananda Reddy, from the posh Jubilee Hills area here with the help of a AK-47 assault rifle. Morning walkers in the KBR park panicked on hearing the staccato firing.

Police Commissioner Mahender Reddy said the assailant barged into Reddy’s car when he entered the vehicle after a workout session and pointed the rifle asking him to drive with an intention to abduct him.

“Suddenly a person around the age of 30 to 35 years carrying a black coloured bag came with a gun and threatened to abduct me. When I resisted and struggled to move the rifle from my face he fired several shots. Some went through the wind shield and few into the air. Meanwhile, my brother Prasad came to my aid,” Reddy said.

The assailant then left his rifle and ran away, he added.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao told the Assembly that the police have registered cases under Sections 307 and 363 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Jubilee Hills police station.

The chief minister also told the Assembly that the AK-47 used in the incident has been identified as the missing weapon of the Greyhounds, an anti-Maoist commando force of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, since December 26, 2013. “A case was registered under Sections 408 and 380 of the IPC at the Narsingi police station at that time,” the chief minister said. He assured the members that gun culture will not be tolerated in the state.

The police said they are not sure about how the assailant obtained the weapon. “The weapon went missing during operations in the Visakhapatnam region during combing operations against the Maoists. We are not really sure how it surfaced here,” a senior officer said.

The police, however, ruled out the role of the Maoists in the botched up abduction plan. Speaking to reporters, Reddy, who is an accused in a quid pro quo investment case with Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, said that he has no enemies and refused to suspect professional enmity as the motive behind the abduction attempt.