Hyderabad police top brass is likely to crack whip against two or three police officers who were connected, directly or indirectly, with the investigation into a road accident reported in March of 2022 in Jubilee Hills police station area, in which a toddler was killed.
Jubilee Hills police, who reopened the case, stumbled upon evidence that faulty investigation and supervision by some police officers had helped former BRS Bodhan MLA Shakeel Aamir’s son Raheel Amir escape from the clutches of law. The re-investigation brought to fore new facts suggesting that Raheel Amir could have been responsible for the fatal road accident reported on Road No. 44 of Jubilee Hills.
A two-and-half-a-month baby boy was killed when a speeding four-wheeler rammed into a balloon-selling woman carrying her baby. As the vehicle hit the woman, the baby got flung into air and hit the ground. Eventually, the baby died. The Jubilee Hills police then registered a road accident case. It was found then that Amir along with his friends Mohammed Maaz and Syed Afnan Ahmed were in the car that hit the woman resulting in her son’s death.
The investigators then arrested Afnan Ahmed holding him responsible for the accident. A charge-sheet was also filed in the case. It is at trial stage now. The former MLA’s son, who was let off then since the investigators found that ‘he was just sitting in that car and not driving’ was recently arrested by Punjagutta police. He was accused of ramming a car into the barricade before the Jyothiba Phule Bhavan (then CM camp office-cum-residence) on Somajiguda-Begumpet stretch in December of 2023.
In that case, an inquiry was ordered after allegations were levelled that while Amir was responsible for the accident the Punjagutta police arrested another youngster in his place. The then Punjagutta Inspector Durga Rao was suspended later.
Interestingly, one of the persons arrested in that Punjagutta road accident case told the interrogators that ‘in 2022 Jubilee Hills road accident too it was Amir who drove the vehicle’. It is learnt that the arrested persons told police officers that the ‘accused used to flee to Dubai when involved in road accident and return when things calm down’.
Initially, police officials did not believe the arrested person’s version. While reviewing the Jubilee Hills case, the senior officers realised that the charge-sheet was vague. “The evidence of fingerprints found in Jubilee Hills case was not clearly mentioned in the charge-sheet,” a top police officer seeking anonymity said.
The victim’s mother was traced and the statements of the persons connected to that road accident case were recorded. From the video footages of that accident to the statements of the witnesses, every minute detail of the case was reviewed. Ultimately, the higher-ups found that some police officers helped Amir in that case by allegedly botching up the probe.
A report is being submitted to the government on this matter recommending disciplinary action against some police officers.
