Umesh Reddy: A Rapist and Killer Who Terrorized The Streets of Karnataka
Umesh Reddy was born in 1969, in Basappa Malige village under Chitradurga district of Karnataka, India. Being the only child of the family Reddy dreamt of becoming police one day. He worked hard for the same and finally got selected in Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) and was posted in Jammu Kashmir on a duty as a guard at the house of a commandant.
Criminal in the Undercover
In the year 1998, a boy aged around twelve reached the Peenya police station in Bangalore. His mother was brutally raped and murdered by a man who ran away the moment he was done with his crime.
The boy while returning home saw him run away and caught a glimpse of his face. When he reached towards his mother she was dead already.
The crime scene had the woman’s body covered with one single saree, the rest of her clothes including undergarments was stolen. There was a broken jug with water around near the body, this helped the police figure out that the man had entered the house seeking drinking water.
Further inside the house some of the money and jewelry were stolen too. Police ran a dog squad chase, tried recovering fingerprints however they could not reach the culprit.
The crime spree meanwhile was happening all around the southern states. Never did the Peenya police thought that the criminal who escaped was a horrifying serial killer and rapist traveling around Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh killing and raping women who even migrated to Gujarat in the next month.
Next year on January 26, the police parade with regard to republic day was going on. To the utmost surprise of the audience and the judges, a girl who was a student in the parade starts pointing at one of the District Armed Reserve (DAR) policemen claiming that he had raped her.
Further to calm the chaos during the event, parade was dismissed and later on inquiry by the police revealed that the serial rapist and the killer on the run was none other than their fellow companion, Umesh Reddy.
He was arrested and dismissed from service. The investigation did not stop there as Reddy escaped the police custody after four months of arrest. While on the way to court he fought the police and escaped with heavy injuries.
A thorough patrol was put up throughout the state and women were warned to be careful at night. Three months that almost took them a year, reported a wide range of rape and murder cases all along.
Final Arrest and Conviction of Umesh Reddy
After various escapes from police custody, Umesh Reddy was finally arrested on 17 May 2002. He was traveling to Tumkur from Bangalore from the Bus stand and he was caught by the Bangalore police.
Further investigation provided the most crucial components of a serial killer’s mind. When they arrested him and raided his house. The police found a bag full of female undergarments.
Not just that, the investigating officer in charge also stated that he was wearing them under his regular outfit when he was arrested. He confessed to having killed around twenty-plus women while raping them. He found extreme ecstasy by doing so.
He would later steal their undergarments as a fascination trophy for his actions and would wear it. However, the jewelry and cash he used to steal during the murder were to make it look like a robbery case more than a serial killing in order to spare himself sometimes before getting caught.
His modus operandi was that he would target housewives who lived in the area he decided to strike. After learning their daily routine via observation he would then approach them seeking a glass of drinking water or sometimes an unknown address.
He would go exactly between 11 am and 3 Pm as during that period of time the men at the house would have gone for work and children would have gone to school. While they returned with the glass of water he would threaten them with a knife, tie them up and rape them, after which he would kill.
He never bothered to bury or dispose of the body. He was extremely careful to not leave even a trace of evidence as he himself was in the police and knew how things worked.
He was considered psychologically ill but was sane enough to stand the trial. Umesh Reddy was doubted to have raped more than twenty women and there were also some who survived his criminal attempt and refused to report due to social stigma.
After three years he was given a death sentence. Currently Umesh Reddy is waiting for his death sentence in the central prison.
