Notorious thief gunned down, wife terms encounter as fake

Doubts are being raised over the gunning down of a Notorious Thief in a pre-dawn encounter at Peddapuli  Paka village, Penamaluru mandal in Krishna district.

According to Penamaluru Inspector Shivaji, Adapa Venkanna was gunned down in retaliatory fire after he opened fire at a police party conducting frisking operations in view of a visit by Chief Minister K Rosaiah to the district later in the day, while his widow claims that the thief was gunned down after policemen took away around Rs 10 lakh he had with him at the time.

Mr Shivaji told INN that a police team, led by East Zone ACP Nagaraj Kumar had sighted the Venkanna and another unidentified person around 3 AM. According to the Inspector, Venkanna opened fire at the police team when they tried to frisk him.

The police immediately opened fire in retaliation, in which the thief was killed while his accomplice managed to escape under the cover of darkness.

Police say that Venkanna was a Notorious Thief, and had over 60 cases pending against him at Hyderabad, Tirupati, Nellore, Vijayawada, Vizianagaram and Guntur. He was a native of Rajahmundry in East Godavari district, but was a resident of Mangalgiri in Guntur district.

Meanwhile, Venkanna’s wife Mahalakshmi charged the police of conducting a fake encounter and claimed that there was no way her husband could have possessed a gun. She added that Venkanna had left his home on Monday night with Rs 10 lakh in cash. Mahalakshmi added that Venkanna had told her that he had decided to turn over a new leaf and become an approver in the many cases.

Mahalakshmi added that Venkanna had told her that the Rs 10 lakh was meant for bribing police personnel to lift the pending cases against him. She announced that she would lodge a complaint against the police department with the concerned authorities.

Police on the other hand claim that they found empty liquor bottle, packets of some snacks, a low-calibre pistol, some money and a cell phone from the site of the encounter.

A case has been registered under section 307 and 353 IPC and further investigations are on.