He was in prison since his arrest in the first week of March, 2022 in a double murder case until he was handed down a sentence of life imprisonment a week ago. Though prosecutors and police shattered all contentions about the double murder convict Mereddy Matta Reddy put up in his defense, one thing still remains a mystery.
How did he manage to evade Narayanaguda police of Hyderabad, while facing two criminal cases, by changing his name from Mereddy Ashok Reddy to Mereddy Matta Reddy? For some inexplicable reasons, investigators are yet to find an answer to this curious angle of crimes allegedly committed by Ashok Reddy, also known as Matta Reddy.
Ibrahimpatnam police of Rachakonda Police Commissionerate arrested him last year in the sensational double murder of a real estate businessman N. Sreenivas Reddy and his friend K. Raghavender Reddy. As per Aadhaar card and other identification documents gathered by police, his name is Mereddy Matta Reddy. His father’s name is Venkata Narsimha Reddy.
While digging further into his antecedents, investigators stumbled upon information that he was facing a couple of criminal cases in Narayanaguda police station of Hyderabad Police Commissionerate. “It is not unusual to find that one person arrested in one case is facing criminal cases in other areas. Strange thing about this case is, he was facing two criminal cases in Narayanaguda albeit with a different name,” police officers seeking anonymity and associated with the probe of the case said.
One case (crime number 21) was registered against him in 2007 under Sections 201 (screening of evidence), 468 (forgery), 420 (cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of Indian Penal Code. Another case was registered the previous year under Sections 420, 405 (criminal breach of trust), 463 (forgery) and 416 (cheating by personation) of IPC. It is a coincidence that crime number of this case is 420!
In police records of both the cases, his name is mentioned as Mereddy Ashok Reddy and father’s name as Indrasena Reddy. Initially, police thought accused in the double murder and these two crimes could be different. But photos and cross-checking with different sources confirmed he was the same person.
Every time, he moved bail petition in trial court or High Court, investigators presented this as a strong evidence opposing bail. They contended that he would change his name again if granted bail and evade prosecution in double murder case as well. But the question remained as to how did Narayanaguda police miss Ashok Reddy, an accused in two crimes they were investigating, for nearly 15 long years?
Till Ibrahimpatnam police arrested Ashok Reddy in the double murder case in March of 2022, their counterparts of Narayanaguda did not know the accused they had to prosecute was roaming with a different name. In fact, by then Narayanaguda police almost gave up probing those two cases as they slipped into the category of Long Pending Cases (LPCs) with no trace of the accused.
After Rachakonda police alerted them about Ashok Reddy, Narayanguda police got trial of one of the two cases. In this case, he got acquitted. This case of an accused evading police for 15 years by changing name has thrown up questions about police investigation.
The gist
*Narayanguda police registers two cases against one Ashok Reddy in years 2006, 2007.
*They lose track of him, have no idea till Ibrahimpatnam police arrest him in 2022 in a double murder case.
*In double murder case investigation, police realise Ashok Reddy changed his name as Matta Reddy and managed to evade police.
*Ashok Reddy evading Narayanaguda police raises questions about police probe.
