04 October,2010 08:35 AM IST | | Imran Gowhar
Members of the Dandupalya gang have filed an RTI plea seeking details of the investigating officer's family members who handled their case
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Active members of the dreaded Dandupalya gang, 11 of whom have been awarded death sentence for over 416 murder cases last week, have filed an RTI application, seeking details of the family members of N Chalapathy, the investigating officer who had handled their case.
u00a0 Hit list: N Chalapathy faces a death threat from this gang as he had
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The move is significant as Chalapathy faces a death threat from this gang as he had refused to accept a bribe and let them off earlier. More worrying is the fact that many of the gang members are still at large and operating in and around south India.
Eleven members had offered half a kg of gold and Rs 5 lakh as bribe to Chalapathy in return for their freedom.
Chalapathy, who is now deputy superintendent of police, said that the case has become a burden for him, as he has faced over 150 inquiries during the investigation from various agencies.
Modus operandi
The gang, notorious for 604 cases of murder and dacoity, used to target elderly people and women who were alone at home, because they were unlikely to offer resistance. After a recce, they would zero in on the house and send one of their woman members to either seek water or beg for food.
The men would hide around the corner and once the door was open, barge in the house and hit the victim with an iron rod. "Once the victim was unconscious, they would rob valuables and even rape them, irrespective of the gender," Chalapathy explained.
The gang member to strike first was allowed to rape the victim. "So there was competition among the gang to kill," Chalapathy said, adding that for them, killing someone was as easy as having a glass of water .
After robbing the valuables, the gang would share the booty, and hand over the same to their wives, keeping a small portion of it for alcohol and food. While they continued killing and robbing people, their wives would take care of finances, and in this case hiring advocates, he said.
Chalapathy recalled that the wives of the accused had came to offer him a bribe, when their husbands were in jail. When he refused, they with the advice of the advocates, started filing petitions with the President of India, Chief Justice of India, AICC Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, Union home minister, the State Chief Minister, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Director General of police, alleging that they have been molested by the officers and their children had been tortured to force the accused to confess to the crime.
They kept on filing petitions and representations directed to the officers concerned, forcing Chalapathy to appear before every inquiry and explain his stand.
Chalapathy, who was an inspector at Vijaya Nagar in 2001, accidentally nabbed a few members of the gang while they were trying to dispose of gold valuables at a pawnshop. A detailed inquiry led to the arrest of 20 gang members spread across three states, and were operating with the same modus operandi.
Threatened, abused
"I have received abuses and even death threats from them a number of times. They had even threatened the magistrate to kill whenever they were produced before the court," Chalapathy added.
"After the court awarded them a death penalty, I am happy not only because they deserved this, but for the reason that I was able to save hundreds of lives, which they could have taken had they been free," he added.
A special court had awarded 11 members to death sentence on Friday, including gang leader Dandupalya Krishna alias Krishna (37 murder cases) Dodda Hanuma, (50) Venkataramana (37), Munikrishna (28),u00a0unikrishna (35) Venkateshau00a0 alias Chandra (28),u00a0 Thimma alias Koti Thimma (29) , Krishandu alias Krishna (28),u00a0allathimma alias Thimma (28), Lakshmi alias Lakahmmamma (18), and Chikka Muniyappa (3).
