Theft at Andhra court, key documents stolen

Amaravati, April 15 (IANS) A court is considered as relatively safe place but thieves broke into one in Andhra Pradesh and took away documents including those related to a high-profile case allegedly involving a minister.

The theft took place in the fourth additional judicial magistrate court on Wednesday. The offenders also took away a few electronic items.

The court staff found about the theft after coming to the court on Thursday morning. Based on the complaint, police filed a case and took up investigation.

Police found the bag with some stolen items in a culvert outside the court but several documents were missing.

According to opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the stolen documents belong to a forgery case filed by its senior leader Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy against YSR Congress Party leader Kakani Govardhan Reddy, who became a minister early this week.

In December 2017, Sarvepally MLA Govardhan Reddy alleged that former minister Chandramohan Reddy had properties worth thousands of crores of rupees in foreign countries. He released a few documents, quoting them as property documents, to the media.

Subsequently the latter had filed a complaint with Nellore rural police station that Goverdhan Reddy had forged documents and demanded action to be taken against him. He even filed a defamation case against him in the court.

Later it was proved that the documents provided by Govardhan Reddy were fake and a charge sheet was filed against him, TDP said.

Meanwhile, TDP leader and Public Accounts Committee chairman Payyavula Keshav on Friday demanded a suo motu case to investigate the theft at the Nellore court.

Keshav said Govardhan Reddy was the accused number one in the case in which the charges of forgery were proved against him.

The TDP leader said anybody could guess who would benefit from the theft of the documents shown as evidence in the charge sheet filed against Govardhan Reddy. The judiciary should take a very serious view of this theft from the 4th Additional Judicial Magistrate Court in Nellore.

Keshav asserted that this was the first time in the country that documents were stolen from the court in a brazen manner. Thieves would usually steal cash or gold jewellery but in this case, they have robbed just documentary evidence filed against the minister. If the perpetrators of this theft were not punished, it would set a wrong precedent for offenders and criminals all over the country, he said.