Highway killing : Ongole court sentences 12 to death including Munna
Ongole, May 24(H.S): Prakasham district court at Ongole on Monday sentenced highway killer Munna and 11 others to death.
Munna and his gang were accused of detaining lorries on the highway posing as policemen and on the pretext of checking valid documents indulged in killing drivers and cleaners. Four such cases came to light in the year 2008 and 19 persons were found guilty. Police suspect this highway robbery resulted in the death of at least thirteen persons so far.
The police investigation revealed that the Munna gang, disguised as RTA inspectors, used to stop vehicles on the highway under the pretext of checking valid documents used to take drivers and cleaners aside and strangle them with plastic ropes and then bury the bodies in nearby rivulets.
They were found guilty of murdering seven persons in four cases in Ongole limits. After killing Tamil Nadu lorry driver Ramasekhar and cleaner Perumal Subramani near Ulavapadu, the gang sold the 21.7 tons of iron in the lorry to a leading merchant in Guntur. Looted property was disposed of and the lorry was dismantled to sell as spares in the Chennai market. An abandoned godown was used for these nefarious activities.
The bodies of the driver and cleaner were packed in gunny bags and buried on the banks of and Innumamalleru and Gundlakammavagu in Kukki Maddipadu Mandal.
On October 17, 2008, a lorry owner Veerappan Kuppuswamy lodged a missing complaint with Ongole police stating that his lorry, with driver and cleaner and laden with 21.7 tons of iron rods from Durgapur of West Bengal went missing.
During the investigation, the police found that Syed Abdul Samad alias Munna gang was involved in it and launched a manhunt. Munna tried to leave the country. However, police arrested him in the farmhouse of a former MLA in Karnataka and brought him to Ongole.
Munna got bail and was again trying to flee the country but Kurnool police re-arrested and sent him to remand.
After the arguments concluded in April 2021, the court found Munna and 17 others guilty in four cases. The judge awarded a death sentence to Munna and his 11 accomplices in the crimes, a life sentence to 4 members, 10 years and 7 years to two other accused.
