Bengaluru: Serial rapist Upesh Reddy, who killed several women after rape, has not got relief from the Karnataka High Court. While upholding the death sentence awarded by the lower court, the High Court has dismissed Reddy’s plea seeking life imprisonment. Reddy used to enter women’s houses on the pretext of water. He often targeted women who were alone in the house.
According to the report of ‘The Tribune’, serial rapist Upesh Reddy has been convicted on charges of rape and murder with nine women. However, the police say that he has raped and murdered at least 18 women. Many women who have escaped from the clutches of criminals have not come forward because of the fear of the society. Because of this, he has been convicted in only 9 cases.
The Karnataka High Court, while hearing the case on Wednesday, upheld the death sentence of Umesh Reddy. A bench of Justice Arvind Kumar and Justice Pradeep Singh, while remarking that the convict is not entitled to leniency in view of the offence. At the same time, Inspector BN Nyamegowda, who investigated in the case, told that Umesh is a very cruel and vicious criminal. He used to target women living alone in the house between 11 am and 2 am. He had also dodged the police five times.
It has been told in the report that Umesh’s criminal tendency started only after joining the Central Armed Reserve Force. After training, he was posted in Kashmir and fled after raping his commandant’s daughter. Not much was known about his criminal history at that time, so he fled to Chitradurga from CRPF and became a constable in the District Armed Reserve (DAR) in November 1996. However, here too his actions did not stop and he was caught in a rape case.
The convict first tried to rape a girl in KEB Colony of Chitradurga, but the girl raised an alarm. A few days later, he raped and then killed a woman in the same district. He was arrested for rape in 1997, but escaped from prison within two months. The investigating officer said that Reddy ran for the first time when he was being shifted from Bellary jail in March 1997. He was later arrested in July 1997 while attempting to steal women’s undergarments, but escaped within 24 hours. He was caught by the Peenya police on February 28, 1998, when he was trying to escape after killing a woman, but escaped while being brought to court.
Umesh, who was involved in the rape and murder of at least 18 women, including five minors, used to enter people’s houses on the pretext of drinking water or seeing rooms on rent, then showing weapons and tying women with ropes. After this, after raping him, he would have left the house after killing him. Umesh is a mental patient, he used to take women’s undergarments with him after the murder. Reddy was finally arrested on 17 May 2002 by the Yesvantpur police from the saloon on the behest of the autorickshaw driver. In February 2009, the lower court convicted Umesh and sentenced him to death.