Painter threatens Ch Malla Reddy, held

Hyderabad: Bowenpally police on Sunday arrested a painter for allegedly making threatening phone calls to Malkajgiri MP Ch. Malla Reddy.

The accused Narender, a resident of Venkatapuram in Alwal, called up the Telugu Desam leader at least four times. Claiming to be a Maoist, he demanded Rs 20 crore from Mr Reddy and threatened to attack educational institutions owned by the MP if the money was not delivered to him.

The Bowenpally police, who registered a case for criminal intimidation following a complaint from the MP, traced the accused within two days. “He had called up the MP and demanded Rs 20 crore. He used coin box phones and a cellphone to make the calls,” said Bowenpally sub-inspector N. Suresh.

When the police managed to track the cellphone call, it was found that the SIM card was registered in the name of a person from Guntur.

“We tried tracing the address. However, it turned out to be someone else. We later traced the accused by tracking his cellphone location with the help of service providers,” Mr Suresh said.

Narender has no Maoist connection, the police said, adding that he was lying as he thought that the MP would be easily intimidated and he would be able to extort money from him.