BANGALORE: Sex maniac and murderer Umesh Reddy, who had given police the slip at least half-a-dozen times in the past, was caught at a hair-dressing saloon Yeshwanthpur saloon in Bangalore on Friday morning.

He had escaped from custody three months ago.

For Sathyavelu, an autorickshaw driver, the early-morning hunt for customers on Friday couldn''t have been more eventful when he chanced upon a man walking into a hair-cutting saloon near Gayatri Temple in Yeshwanthpur. The man, as Sathyavelu realised in a split second, was the notorious criminal Reddy.

As soon as he saw Reddy walk in, Sathyavelu called his elder brother, also an autorickshaw driver, and asked him to bring policemen from the Yeshwanthpur police station. Sathyavelu then kept vigil outside the saloon.

Reddy ambled out into the sun after a haircut and clean shave. As he walked towards the Yeshwanthpur railway station, Sathyavelu followed him, tipping off the police to rush towards the station. Midway, Sathyavelu, his brother and the police closed in on Reddy near Sharief Nagar and caught him.

At first Reddy claimed to be somebody else. Police took him to the Yeshwanthpur police station, where he admitted that he was indeed Umesh Reddy.

Police Commissioner H.T. Sangliana and other senior police officers rushed to the police station.

A police officer said Sathyavelu, an avid reader of eveningers and tabloids, had run into Reddy in a court where he (Sathyavelu) was also an accused. ``That''s how Sathyavelu could identify Reddy.''''

That earned him all-round appreciation and a cash reward of Rs 20,000.

Interrogations revealed that Umesh Reddy was planning strikes in the city. He came to Yeshwanthpur early Friday from Tumkur by train. He deposited his baggage in the cloak room at the station before getting a haircut. Then his hunt for victims would have started. But that was not to be.

Chicken run: Investigations revealed that hours before the March 4 escape, Reddy had bought chicken and a bottle of rum.

While being brought from Bellary to Bangalore on a bus on the night of March 3, Reddy plied the escort police with the rum and chicken, earning their trust.

When the bus stopped near a dhaba in the early hours of March 4 at Hiriyur, Chitradurga district, Umesh Reddy told the policemen he wanted to answer the nature''s call. He convinced them to remove his handcuffs.

He ran into the fields, and escaped.

Investigations said Umesh Reddy, during the interregnum, raped three girls in Pune, Davanagere and Hubli-Dharwad, besides stealing three cellphones and two credit cards.

He stole cash and clothes from a Pune hotel where he worked as a waiter, the police said.

Escape artist: Reddy has escaped from police custody on six occassions. There are 19 criminal cases pending against him in Chitradurga, Bellary, Bangalore, Baroda, Kunigal. He has been charged with murders, rape, robbery and burglaries.

His first encounter with crime started when he was a CRPF Jawan serving in Jammu and Kashmir. He tried to rape the daughter of a Commandant after which he was dismissed from service. Then, he returned to his native district Chitradurga and joined District Armed Reserve (DAR) as a policeman. The police did not know of his track record.

He was arrested and dismissed from DAR service after he raped and killed a girl in Chitradurga and sexually abused another girl. After that, he escaped from custody and killed an income tax officer''s wife in Bangalore, a girl in Ahmedabad, two girls in Baroda and a widow in Kunigal.

Transvestite: Umesh Reddy is a transvestite. After his arrest on Friday, he was found wearing a bra and panties. The bagagge seized from Umesh Reddy after his arrest contained women''s garments. they included 10 bras, 18 pairs of panties, six sarees, two nighties, eight churidars, and four blouses.