Search intensified for Gowtham Reddy as HC dismisses his bail plea

Vijayawada : Following the High Court’s dismissal of the anticipatory bail petition of Punuru Gowtham Reddy, YSRCP leader and former chairman of AP Fibernet on Wednesday, the million dollar ques-tion is whether the police would arrest the fugitive leader. The indications are that already several teams of police are searching for Gowtham Reddy against whom there were several criminal cases earlier also.

It may be recalled that Gowtham Reddy is accused of hatching a conspiracy and paying supari of Rs 24 lakh to a mercenary gang to murder Ganduri Umamaheswara Sastri with whom he had a dispute over a property. Sastri lodged a complaint in the Satyanarayanapuram police station alleging that Gowtham Reddy grabbed his land and attempted to murder him by hiring assassins.

Since then, Gowtham Reddy has been playing hide and seek with the police and playing victim card by using his friends in various places to come to his rescue. Surprisingly, Bezwada Bar Association had also issued a statement that the police are behaving ‘highhandedly’ in their attempts to arrest Gowtham Reddy.

Gowtham Reddy filed a petition in the High Court seeking anticipatory bail stating that the al-legations against him were politically motivated. He pointed out that there was a civil suit pending in the lower court and in spite of that, the police registered a criminal case against him.

The High Court, while rejecting the anticipatory bail petition, stated that the charges in the offences are serious in nature and the prosecution made out a prima facie case against him.

It may be noted that there were several victims who lost their property due to the machina-tions of Gowtham Reddy. However, they are yet to come out and lodge complaints with the police. Most of the victims belonged to a vulnerable community who are afraid to come out in the open.