He is known as Gabbar Singh for his ruthless exploits both among his admirers and detractors. But in recent weeks, the portly retired Inspector General of Police (IGP) K.S.N. Murthy shocked them all when he was on the run. The reason: he was avoiding the police after they booked him in a sensational case involving extortion, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation and forgery. It is only after the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted him anticipatory bail that Murthy surfaced, surrendered at the City Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad.

Murthy, as directed by the High Court, submitted a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties each of Rs 1 lakh besides surrendering his passport at the CCS. The court has ordered a stay on all proceedings against him by the police and allowed another application in the court seeking quashing of the case.

The Banjara Hills police had booked him following a complaint from Mohammed Murtuza Ali Khan, a developer, to the state's Director General of Police Swarnjit Sen in February this year alleging that in 1992 Murthy coerced him to part with his prized property on Road 11, Banjara Hills, without offering him the market value.

Murthy made headlines in the 1990s when he cracked down on historysheeters in the Old City area. When he was elevated to the IPS, Murthy was instrumental in bringing several accused persons to justice after the communal riots of 1990. He headed the Special Investigation Team that probed the killing of an IPS officer K.S. Vyas at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in the city. He is also responsible for the arrest of all four Naxalites accused of murder.

These achievements, however, have not been without controversy. On these and other occasions, Murthy has been accused of being high-handed. His flamboyant nature coupled with allegations about his "extra-legal" ways has often landed him in trouble. He has been accused of settling land and other disputes in Vijayawada, where he worked as city police commissioner, for a price.

Another serious allegation is Murthy's reported links with former Naxalites. When one Naxalite Kattula Sammaiah died at the Katunayake airport in Colombo a few years ago. Sammaiah and Murthy's son were on their way to Germany to further a joint business deal. The earlier TDP government turned a blind eye to all the allegations as Murthy enjoyed its support.

The latest charges against Murthy may, however, prove difficult to dismiss. Khan has accusing him of failing to pay a promised sum of Rs 36 lakh for land that he purchased. He claims he has been given only Rs 23 lakh. Investigators found incriminating evidence following the arrest of a historysheeter Mohammed Sajuddin Taskeen, who reportedly admitted that the former IGP had aided and abetted him in illegal settlement of land disputes. Taskeen was arrested and a pistol with six live rounds and Rs 4.70 lakh in cash was seized from him.

Khan's complaint, registered on February 19, 2005, alleges that Murthy rented the ground floor of the house in the name of Ammaji Bapa Rao Construction Company and started blackmailing him with the demand that the house be sold at a nominal price which Murthy himself proposed as Rs 36 lakh. Murthy eventually got the house, where he is now staying, fraudulently registered in his own name for a throwaway price of Rs 10 lakh. The market value of the house and the land is estimated to run into a couple of crores.

While the sale was kept pending by the registry for want of the mandatory Income Tax clearance certificate, Khan alleges that Murthy got the registration done later by forging his signature to collect the certificate from the Income Tax authorities. Khan failed to register a complaint earlier as he feared reprisal and lack of fair play by the police. Now he wants the house back and is ready to return the money paid by Murthy with interest.
Investigators who examined the questioned document - the application for the Income Tax Clearance certificate - found the signature on it does not tally with that of Khan and it deepened the suspicion about impersonation. Clearly, Khan did not file the application. Even the thumb impression on the rectification deed to correct the principal sale deed, collected from the registry after the income tax clearance certificate was presented, is not identical with that of Khan's, according to the State Finger Prints Bureau. Whatever be the manner in which Crime No. 145 / 05 of the CCS is finally resolved, the former police officer appears to be getting a taste of his own medicine for the moment.

Index