Hyderabad: Retired Army havildar Upputholla Mallesh had planned to rob banks, jewellery shops, and wealthy people with the weapons stolen from the Bollaram Army armoury, Malkajgiri Police said on Saturday, October 3.
Seven more accused, including three Army personnel, have been arrested and will be produced for judicial remand.
Havildar planned to commit robberies with friend, cousin
Addressing a press conference, Malkajgiri Police Commissioner B Sumathi said that Mallesh was trying to procure weapons to commit property offences with his cousin Upputholla Mallikarjun and friend Chemmakar Niranjan.
For this, he approached Avi Dey, alias Obi, and Birbal Shaw of West Bengal, whom he had met during his posting at the Barrackpore Cantonment in 2022.
He had become acquainted with Shaw, who ran a sugarcane juice centre near the Army unit. Through him, Mallesh had allegedly purchased a country-made firearm and live rounds worth Rs 10,000 from Dey.
Mallesh had intended to use the firearm to extort money from people but ended up not using it in the crime. The weapon was kept at his father’s residence in Achampet and was recovered by the Malkajgiri Police on September 23.
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Approached Army colleagues after failing to get weapons from WB
When Dey and Shaw could not arrange the firearms, Mallesh allegedly contacted Konduri Sheshulu, Vinod Kumar, and Kucharakanti Praveen, officers that he had worked with at the Madras Regiment.
The three agreed to assist with the theft and allegedly helped Mallesh break open the locks of the kote and magazine to steal the weapons and ammunition.
Dey later agreed to buy the stolen weapons, offering Rs 3 lakh each for pistols and Rs 5 lakh each for long weapons.
Theft came to light on August 31
The theft had come to light on August 31 and Mallesh was arrested on September 11.
The stolen items included four AK-203 rifles, one INSAS rifle, six 9mm pistols, a civil pistol, magazines, three binoculars, 1,156 pistol rounds, 720 AK-203 rounds and 36 INSAS rounds.
The cache was recovered from the residence of Mallesh’s father in Achampet, Nagarkurnool.
