HYDERABAD: It was a telephone conversation between now suspended Punjagutta inspector Durga Rao and former Bodhan MLA Shakeel Amir that allegedly led to the latter’s son, Raheel Amir, making a hasty exit from police station on the night of December 24 — moments after he was brought there on charges of ramming his luxury car into a divider at Begumpet.
A few hours after that, Raheel left for Dubai where his father lives. Police issued a lookout notice against him.
With the fact about this phone call coming to light, Hyderabad police are mulling making Shakeel a co-accused in the case. Commissioner K Sreenivasa Reddy has also instructed his subordinates to explore the possibility to bring them both back to the city.
Raheel currently faces charges of rash driving and impersonation for hitting a road divider outside the Praja Bhavan on December 24 with his BMW.
According to the chronology of events shared by sources part of this case, local police reached the spot soon after the accident happened that night and brought Raheel to police station where Durga Rao was also present. Officials seized Raheel’s mobile phone and were preparing to take him to the traffic police station to put him through a test for drunken driving.
But before that could happen, two people reached the police station and spoke to Durga Rao. By then Raheel also left from there. “It appears it was Shakeel who spoke to the inspector over the phone and influenced him to release Raheel. Probe is still underway to gather evidence about the conversation,” said the source. When the two men left the police station after a long chat with Durga Rao, they took Raheel’s phone with them.
Some time later that same night, someone by the name of Abdul Arif approached the police, claiming to be the one who caused the accident. He was declared as accused in the case by Punjagutta police.
When senior police officers of city police came to know about the accident, they got into the fine details and found something amiss. An independent probe was ordered wherein it was found that Arif was an impersonator and it was allegedly Shakeel’s son Raheel, who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident.
The probe also revealed the vital telephone conversation between Shakeel and the inspector.
This case, incidentally, draws several parallels to the accident which took place on Jubilee Hills Road No 45 in 2022, and led to the death of a baby. At that time too, though there were allegations about Raheel driving the SUV, investigators from Jubilee Hills police gave him a clean chit. They concluded that it was someone else who was at the wheel and chargesheeted that driver in the case.
A few hours after that, Raheel left for Dubai where his father lives. Police issued a lookout notice against him.
With the fact about this phone call coming to light, Hyderabad police are mulling making Shakeel a co-accused in the case. Commissioner K Sreenivasa Reddy has also instructed his subordinates to explore the possibility to bring them both back to the city.
Raheel currently faces charges of rash driving and impersonation for hitting a road divider outside the Praja Bhavan on December 24 with his BMW.
According to the chronology of events shared by sources part of this case, local police reached the spot soon after the accident happened that night and brought Raheel to police station where Durga Rao was also present. Officials seized Raheel’s mobile phone and were preparing to take him to the traffic police station to put him through a test for drunken driving.
But before that could happen, two people reached the police station and spoke to Durga Rao. By then Raheel also left from there. “It appears it was Shakeel who spoke to the inspector over the phone and influenced him to release Raheel. Probe is still underway to gather evidence about the conversation,” said the source. When the two men left the police station after a long chat with Durga Rao, they took Raheel’s phone with them.
Some time later that same night, someone by the name of Abdul Arif approached the police, claiming to be the one who caused the accident. He was declared as accused in the case by Punjagutta police.
When senior police officers of city police came to know about the accident, they got into the fine details and found something amiss. An independent probe was ordered wherein it was found that Arif was an impersonator and it was allegedly Shakeel’s son Raheel, who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident.
The probe also revealed the vital telephone conversation between Shakeel and the inspector.
This case, incidentally, draws several parallels to the accident which took place on Jubilee Hills Road No 45 in 2022, and led to the death of a baby. At that time too, though there were allegations about Raheel driving the SUV, investigators from Jubilee Hills police gave him a clean chit. They concluded that it was someone else who was at the wheel and chargesheeted that driver in the case.