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2008 Andhra highway killings: 12 sentenced to death, 7 get life imprisonment
Hyderabad: A local court in Ongole in Andhra Pradesh on Monday sentenced 12 members of a gang to death and seven other to life imprisonment for killing 13 truck drivers and cleaners on Chennai-Kolkata highway in 2008
Hyderabad: A local court in Ongole in Andhra Pradesh on Monday sentenced 12 members of a gang to death and seven other to life imprisonment for killing 13 truck drivers and cleaners on Chennai-Kolkata highway in 2008.
District eighth additional sessions court judge G Manohar Reddy, who heard arguments over the prosecution’s charge sheet in seven different cases, pronounced the judgement in four cases. The judge also sentenced seven others of the gang to life imprisonment.
The Andhra Pradesh high court will have to affirm the death sentence.
Mohammad Abdul Samad alias Munna and his gang committed these crimes in 2008. According to Prakasam district police, Munna used to masquerade as a commercial tax officer and stop trucks coming with heavy loads of goods on the Chennai-Kolkata national highway (NH-16) passing through the district, in the name of checking their documents.
“As the driver and cleaner got down from the vehicle, he would strangulate them driver and cleaner with the help of his accomplices and divert the truck to an unknown place. He stuffed the bodies of the victims in gunny bags and bury them deep in the forest areas. Later, he would dismantle the trucks into scrap and sell them along with the goods over a period of time,” a police official said.
In a span of a few months in 2008, Munna and his gang killed as many as 13 persons.
“The missing of trucks along with drivers and cleaners became a challenge for the Prakasam police those days. A thorough investigation by the police led to the arrest of Munna and his men within a short period in 2009,” the police official said.
In 2013, Munna was released on bail in one of the cases and he fled to Kurnool, where he allegedly hatched a plan to eliminate a businessman. He was arrested at Nandyal in Kurnool district in January 2014 and has been in jail since then.
The accused were charged under various sections of Indian Penal Code including Sections 396 (any one of five or more persons, who are conjointly committing dacoity, commits murder in so committing dacoity), 120-B (criminal conspiracy ), 400 (dacoity by a gang), 412 ( possessing stolen property) and 414 (Concealing and disposing of stolen property), besides Section 25 (1-A) of Arms Act.
