Suspected SIMI activists killed three policemen, injured several before being shot dead. Suspected SIMI activists killed three policemen, injured several before being shot dead.

Police Constable Chevugoni Nagaraju, 30, who was killed by suspected SIMI activists on Saturday morning, had been married only eight months.

“He used to take care of me like a child. Early this morning he woke me up and said he was going out for some work. He never returned. I was told by my uncle that he was injured. They took me to hospital in Hyderabad. After coming here they are showing me his dead body. Life is not worth living for me now,” wailed a distraught Sanjana, Nagaraju’s wife.

Sanjana belongs to the same village that her husband came from, Rasoolgudem in Kattangur, Nalgonda district. Nagaraju joined Nalgonda Police four years ago, and was posted at Kattangur Police Station, 40 km from Suryapet, where the April 2 shooting occurred.

Nagaraju’s father C Srimanarayana said his son had gone out early in the morning without giving any reason. “Until we came to the hospital we did not know he had died at the spot. He was only 30 years old and was proud to be in Telangana Police,” he said at Kamineni Hospital.

In the two days before they were shot dead, the two suspected SIMI activists killed three policemen on duty and left one battling for life in hospital. Another three policeman suffered injuries in the encounter on Saturday morning.

State DGP Anurag Sharma said that the Nalgonda Police had received a tip-off on Friday about two suspicious persons moving near a dargah in Arvapalli near Suryapet. But they had fled by the time police reached the spot.

Early on Saturday morning, a constable on patrol duty spotted the duo on a motorcycle near Sitaramapuram. A police team gave chase, but the duo fired at them and escaped towards Janakipuram in Atmakur mandal of Nalgonda, police said.

“On the way, they left the motorcycle and snatched another motorcycle from a person at gunpoint and fled but they could not go far as their bike got stuck in sand. So they abandoned it and ran into a thicket nearby. Two to three teams surrounded the place with thick bushes and vegetation.

“When one team in a Tata Sumo entered into the bushes, the duo opened fire killing Constable C Nagaraju, who was driving the vehicle… Sub-Inspector P Siddhaiah who was sitting beside him took bullets in his chest and head while Circle Inspector Balgangi Reddy was injured in the hand. Police parties then exchanged fire with the assailants for nearly 30 minutes and shot them dead,” the DGP said.

Hyderabad’s Kamineni Hospital, where the injured policemen have been taken, released a bulletin stating that the condition of SI Siddhaiah was extremely critical. “There is one bullet in his chest and two bullets are lodged near his brain. His condition deteriorated fast and we resuscitated him after he was brought here,” a hospital official said.

The Telangana government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 40 lakh and jobs for the kin of the deceased. The government will pay for the medical expenses of the four injured.

Like Nagaraju, Constable P Lingaiah, of Suryapet Town Police Station, was 30. Hailing from Ootkur village of Suryapet, he got married in 2012 to Bhavani. The couple had a baby girl a year and a half ago. Lingaiah was the personal security officer to Suryapet Circle Inspector Y Moghaliah, who escaped with non-lethal bullet injuries when the two men fired at them at Suryapet bus stand on the night of April 2.

Lingaiah took bullets in his chest and abdomen.

The third policeman to die was Mahesh Kumar, 34, a Home Guard attached to Suryapet Town Police Station. He was standing beside Constable Lingaiah scrutinizing the photo ID cards produced by the two armed assailants when they opened fire. Mahesh is survived by his wife and two children.

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