The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Daring constable pins down burglar

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Thursday, Nov 02, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Daring constable pins down burglar

Staff Reporter

Hunt on for his two other associates who manage to escape

IN AWE: A. Syam Sundara Rao (right) with two of his colleagues at Vanasthalipuram police station on Tuesday. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: Undeterred by a bleeding injury inflicted by a gang of burglars, a police constable caught one of them risking his life at Vanasthalipuram in the early hours of Wednesday.

Constable A. Syam Sundara Rao was asleep in his house at Kamalanagar when his neighbour, who also works in the same police station, called him up around 1.30 a.m. saying three persons were moving suspiciously in the neighbourhood.

Rao rushed out to find three jacket-clad youth moving out of the locality. Alerting the police station, Rao too started off on his bike looking out for the suspects. Barely 100 yards away, he spotted them standing in a corner of an adjacent lane.

"With their long hair and jerkins, I smelt a rat since they fitted the description given by my neighbours earlier." When the constable ran into them with pointed queries, the trio tried to run away. He pounced and caught two of them by their collar.

Attacked

Even as he directed the third one to surrender disclosing that he was a constable, the latter attacked him with a knife. "With the knife making a deep gash on my arm, I loosened my grip and one person managed to escape. But I managed to pin down the other person and held him tightly," Rao explained.

He was identified as Mastan, arrested earlier on charge of breaking into houses. On seeing an approaching police vehicle, the other two suspects ran away.

A hunt is on for his two other associates who managed to escape after trying in vain to set Mastan free from the constable's bear grip.

The constable in all modesty said any hesitation on his part would only have given scope for the offenders to escape. "I would have preferred death to letting them flee," he affirmed. Mastan later confessed to police that he and his two associates broke into two houses and collected Rs. 12,100 and two tolas of gold chain.

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Andhra Pradesh