Hyderabad: A police constable and a bouncer were injured on Saturday after a notorious thief, Bathula Prabhakar alias Rahul Reddy, opened fire on a police party inside a pub in the Gachibowli area here. The Hyderabad Police’s Central Crime Station had laid a trap for him at the Prism pub, but in a bid to escape, Prabhakar fired at the police personnel, ensuing a shootout, which resulted in injuries and his arrest.
Prabhakar, a native of Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, is a known thief and was wanted in over 80 cases registered against him in Telugu states. Police said he would mostly target engineering colleges, stealing money and other valuables.
In 2020, Prabhakar was apprehended by the Andhra police, and he was imprisoned after conviction. However, he gave a slip to police in March 2022 during a court hearing in Anakapalle. Since then, Prabhakar has been absconding. He was also committing thefts and other crimes but continued to evade arrest as he would use fake identities and change his appearance.
Recently, police tracked him in Hyderabad and named him as an accused in two theft cases in the Moinabad and Narsingi police station limits of Cyberabad.
Acting on a tip-off, Cyberabad Police Station formed a team to nab him. Police personnel, including Head Constable Venkatrami Reddy, Constables Pradeep Reddy and Veeraswamy Mufti, did a recce of various areas, and on Saturday they finally laid a trap for Prabhakar at the Prism pub to arrest him. However, as they tried to close in on him, Prabhakar opened fire, hitting Venkatrami in the leg. A bouncer was also injured in the firing.
“With the help of other bouncers, we managed to overpower and arrest Prabhakar. After conducting searches, two guns and 23 rounds of bullets were recovered from him,” said an officer.
Meanwhile, the injured cop and bouncer were shifted to a private hospital for treatment while police launched a probe into Prabhakar’s activity and how he obtained the guns.
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