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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabab
Five police personnel, including two head constables, have been suspended for getting drunk and allowing three accused belonging to the outlawed Deendar Anjuman to move freely in Vijayawada town while on parole.
Hyderabad City Police Commissioner M V Krishna Rao on Monday night said head constable Mohammed Anwar and constables S Balakrishna and Ratnam Shetty of City Police Special Armed Reserve have been charged with dereliction of duty.
Similarly, other two personnel of the escort party -- head constable C Rajamallu of Karimnagar and constable T Mohan Reddy of Kurnool -- were suspended by the superintendents of police of their respective districts on the same charge.
This follows an enquiry by an assistant commandant of the Special Armed Reserve into the incident that caused consternation to the police top-brass.
On October 18 when the five-member escort party accompanied the accused from Cherlapalli central jail at Hyderabad to Vijayawada.
The accused -- Mohammed Ibrahim, kingpin of the gang that exploded bombs at several churches, a temple and a mosque in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa during the year 2000, and his brothers Mohammed Wahab and Mohammed Noor -- were granted parole by the court to visit their ailing mother Zainabee at the government general hospital in Vijayawada.
On reaching Vijayawada, the accused visited their mother at the hospital. Soon after, they went to their house at Wynchipet in Vijayawada city, though they had no permission to do so.
While Wahab and Noor stayed with family members in the ground floor of their house, two escort constables and a head constable consumed liquor, while another head constable relaxed. Ibrahim, accompanied by an escort constable, went out to meet his uncle and other relatives. The escort constable also consumed liquor at a bar.
In the meantime, the Vijayawada City Police special branch personnel, on being informed about the arrival of the trio in Vijayawada, found to their dismay that neither the accused nor the escort team were present at the hospital. The special branch sleuths later found two accused and four escort cops at the residence of Ibrahim. A little later, Ibrahim and the escort constable surfaced at the hospital.
While the accused were sent back to Cherlapalli jail with another escort team, the erring cops were sent to the hospital for breath-analyser tests. Three constables and a head constable tested positive. Their blood samples were also taken for examination.
Hyderabad police and prison authorities were informed about the incident. A preliminary inquiry was conducted on October 20 by the assistant commandant of Special Armed Reserve, Hyderabad and a report was submitted to the higher-ups.
The banned the Deendar Anjuman after a series of blasts at churches, a temple and a mosque. The conspiracy of the group to create communal hatred and trigger communal violence by exploding the bombs at places of worship came to light when bombs being shifted by Ibrahim and his friend exploded accidentally in Bangalore.
The driver of the van was killed in the blast while Ibrahim suffered injuries.
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