Police Officers Who Probed Blast Case Welcome HC Verdict

Hyderabad: For Arkapally Anjaneyulu, a 2004-batch officer, April 8 was his birthday, which he always celebrated with his family. This year offered him greater contentment with the Telangana High Court upholding the death sentence of convicts in the Dilsukhnagar 2013 bomb blast case.

“This verdict doubled my energy; it made my day and my life,” shared Anjaneyulu, who was involved in the investigation as sub-inspector (admin).

Anjaneyulu, task force Inspector in Vikarabad, was the admin SI in the Saroornagar police station in 2013. He is the one who registered the case pertaining to the bomb blast.

“I was in the police station, which was located 100 metres away from A1 Tiffin Centre. The place was jam packed at any point of time, and imagine the haphazard running of the panic-stricken crowd after the blast. We felt the vibration of the blast at the police station and the ear-splitting sound, but we thought it to be a cylinder explosion. The moment I stepped out, it was all smoke. As I entered the smoke, everything was scattered. I alone picked up 50-60 injured, and transported them to nearby hospitals, irrespective of the vehicles,” he said.

Though the case was probed by the National Investigation Agency, the initial investigation and ground work was mostly done by the Saroornagar police and the Malakpet police.

“It was my regular dinner time, and was returning to the police station from the break, but the frantically running crowd showed otherwise,” said Ravinder Reddy, special branch ACP, Rachakonda. “While I was seeing the running crowd, I approached the injured victim on the road. I was helpless myself but got down the vehicle and saw an RTC bus too approaching unknowingly. I stopped the bus, grabbed the injured and carried them into the bus, suggesting the driver and the passengers take them to the hospital. I was not involved in the case but the meticulous investigation my colleagues carried out makes a case study.”

Explaining how their staff had a narrow escape, A.V.R Narasimha Rao, Saroornagar inspector at the time of the blast, said, “Our staff used to get tea from A1 Tiffin Centre, but that day with the jam packed crowd, the constable headed to another outlet which was farther. In another narrow escape, the students of a training institution, which was near the explosion site, left minutes before the blast.”

He is currently posted as the ADCP in the special branch, Hyderabad Commissionerate.

Rao said he could not go home for 11 straight days while his family were checking constantly upon him.

“There was extensive management, not just with the regular crowd, dead bodies and injuries but also the political leaders who were visiting the spot, including then prime minister Manmohan Singh, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, and the Leader of Opposition in Assembly N. Chandrababu Naidu.”

“When there is a call for serious emergencies like the blast situations, the public will naturally consider and adhere to the police, the way they acted on the spot was quick. The Dilshuknagar youth helped the injured to move to the hospital and worked along with the police lines till the spot was cleared,” he explained.

While explaining how he could pull himself up seeing all the grisly scenes, Rao said, “I am a 1991-batch officer. My very first case after my training, was a woman who got burnt to death. The moment and the smell got imprinted in my mind. After more than 20 years in the field, when I rushed to the blast site, I was hit with the same graphic visions and smells I experienced the first time. I still get chills, thinking about that.”