Visakhapatnam: City police to keep a close vigil on rowdy-sheeters

Visakhapatnam: Despite facilitating counselling sessions at regular intervals, rowdy-sheeters in Visakhapatnam have become proactive and indulge in a number of anti-social activities.

About 380 rowdy-sheeters are registered in 22 police stations of the city. Of them, 170 persons appear to be active in various crimes.

To control their criminal activities, the city police intend to pay individual attention, register the rowdy-sheeters under PD Act and expel them if required.

Mainly, the rowdy-sheeters act as a backbone for realtors to make settlements. Some of them are also committing murders in an inebriated state.

In 2022, 38 murders took place in the city. Of them, five murders took place due to revenge, two psycho murders and four murders committed by the rowdy-sheeters under the influence of substance abuse. According to the police records, 15 murder cases were registered in the city as of now. Recently, a rowdy-sheeter along with his group kidnapped Visakhapatnam MP MVV Satyanarayana’s family members and his close associate and auditor G Venkateswara Rao (GV). Although the case was resolved in a few hours after the police got a hint of the kidnapping, it did raise safety concerns in Visakhapatnam which is otherwise known to be a peaceful city.

Kola Venkat Hemanth Kumar, who had 12 cases filed against him, including kidnap and murder cases, is the main accused in the case. He has a rowdy-sheet registered at Bheemunipatnam police station. A month ago he went to jail as an accused in a kidnapping case and eventually got released on bail. The city police held a counselling session on Sunday, a day before he committed another crime.

According to sources, some of the rowdy-sheeters are in touch with the ruling party leaders and realtors and carry out works assigned to them. Earlier, former City Police Commissioner Ch Srikanth expelled three rowdy-sheeters from the city as a part of crime prevention measures.

Keeping the recent MP’s case in view, City Police Commissioner CM Trivikrama Varma held a meeting with city officials, law and order and crime inspectors of all police stations, special branch and task force officials and instructed them to keep tabs on rowdy-sheeters’ activities. Also, information regarding active rowdy-sheeters, ganja peddlers, PD Act proposals and speedy trial cases in each police station were discussed in detail.

The CP made it clear that every rowdy-sheeter will be watched closely and any suspicious activity will be taken to task with immediate effect.