Banjara Hills wakes up to AK-47 shots

Gunman opens fire in Hyd

• Aurobindo Pharma VC grapples with attacker, survives
• Nityananda Reddy pulled out his pistol and fired in self-defence
• His brother comes to his rescue, catches from behind
• AK-47 identified as missing weapon of Greyhounds commando force
• CCTV footage helped in identifying the attacker
• 6 teams formed to hunt for the attacker

Hyderabad: The serenity of KBR Park where several people from the upscale area of Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills, including VIPs go for morning walk was shattered as a man armed with an AK-47 tried to kidnap Nityananda Reddy, vice-chairman of Aurobindo Pharma, in Hyderabad from his car on Wednesday morning. No one was injured in the incident. The police, who examined the CCTV footage, identified the assailant. It is said that he had done some shopping in Mehdipatnam two days back. A bill of Chandana Brothers was found in the bag the assailant had left behind. Following this, six teams have been formed to nab him. The teams went to the shopping mall and saw the CCTV footage of the people who had visited the mall. They had also shown the footage to Nityananda Reddy who is learnt to have identified the assailant.

According to eye witness, the incident took place around 7.20 am when Reddy, had finished his morning walk and got into his Audi Car AP 09 CM-2367. As he was fastening his seat belt, a man holding AK 47 came from the back side of the car pushed his way in by opening the left side door and placed the gun on his chest and asked him to start the car.

Taken aback by the sudden development, Nityananda tried to protect himself by pushing the gun aside with his left hand and in the process it went off and bullets flew in different directions hitting the wind shield and roof of the car. According to police, eight bullets were found at the site of the incident.

Nityananda, while resisting the attempts of the attacker, shouted “Help Help.” His brother Sivananda Reddy, who was just 100 metres away, rushed to the rescue of his brother and held the attacker from behind. According D Uday Kumar Reddy ACP Banjara Hills, Nityananda Reddy also took out his licensed pistol and is said to have fired in self defence. The attacker, who is around 34 years of age and 5.5 feet high, was in uniform generally worn by personal security officers of VIPs.

Realising that he was in trouble, the attacker bit the hand of Sivananda Reddy and ran away leaving behind his AK-47 and a bag with clothes. No one was injured in the incident.

According to Nityananda Reddy, the attacker was in his mid 30s and was carrying a black bag and a plastic bag. Police is trying to find out if he was a Maoist or a terrorist and how he got the deadly weapon.

The businessman, who claimed that he has not seen the attacker before, had offered money to the attacker while grappling with him. “I have no enemies. Let the police investigate the issue,” he said.

City Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy, who rushed to the spot said, "We have identified that this is a weapon which was lost by the Greyhounds (elite commando force in Andhra Pradesh) in 2013 after the Greyhounds were coming back from operation against naxals.” A case of the missing gun was registered with the Narsingi police station after one year. Sniffer dogs have been pressed into service to trace the attacker. The police seized the Audi Car along with the weapon and also recovered empty shells from the site.

Aurobindo Pharma is India's fourth biggest drug maker by market value. Reddy is its whole-time director and vice chairman and has been associated with the company as a promoter. He supervises the overall affairs of the company.