History-sheeter injured in leg as police fire at him

Police opened fire at a history-sheeter when he attacked them with a knife on a vacant plot behind Prestige Tech Park on Outer Ring Road near Marathahalli on Tuesday. This is the third time in two weeks, the police opened fire to nab a criminal.

Shivaram Reddy, a history-sheeter in the Electronics City police station, was trying to evade arrest. He is wanted in rape, attempt-to-rape, dacoity, robbery and theft cases. He was also detained under the Goonda Act in August 2014.

They located Reddy by tracking his mobile phone number. Around 5 pm, a team led by Narayan, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Whitefield division and Nagesh Kumar, assistant commissioner of police (Electronics City sub-division), HAL inspector Sadiq Pasha, Bommanahalli station inspector Manjunath and their staff went to the spot.

They asked Reddy to surrender. But he attacked Ananda, a sub-inspector, with a knife and assaulted Pasha. Reddy then tried to attack Manjunath, who opened fire at him. One of the bullets hit Reddy on his left leg and he fell down.

The police arrested Reddy and shifted their injured colleagues to a nearby private hospital. They are said to be stable. Reddy was shifted to another hospital and is out of danger.

Reddy (31) is a resident of Avalahalli, Hoskote. He would sneak into women’s paying guest (PG) accommodations and rape the inmates at knifepoint. He would then flee with their valuables. Reddy has been named in five rape cases so far. Whenever he was sent to jail, he would come out on bail and commit crimes.

On March 3 and 4, two rapes cases were registered in HAL police station and the incident had occurred in a women’s PG. Police suspected Reddy’s role in the crime and found that he was out on bail. A special team was formed to track him.

In 2016, Reddy had sneaked into a womens’ PG in Electronic City and had raped a 25-year-old software engineer. He was arrested and sent to jail.