Former BSF cop from Andhra Pradesh gets life imprisonment for girl’s kidnap and sexual exploitation

GUNTUR: A former Border Security Force (BSF)  jawan-turned-auto driver, who kidnapped and sexually exploited a 13-year-old girl from Bhattiprolu in Guntur district in 2017, was awarded life imprisonment by First Additional District Sessions Judge S Sridevi. The incident created a sensation in the State and the girl was rescued from Samba Sector in Jammu and Kashmir 45 days after the kidnap.

The accused, Srirama Nageswara Rao (46), was dismissed from BSF due to his misconduct. He returned to his native village and started running an auto. He used to take children to school in his auto.
On April 21, 2017, Nageswara Rao kidnapped the 13-year-old girl from Ilavaram village in Bhattiprolu Mandal.

She was staying with her grandparents as her mother was unwell at that time. Based on a complaint lodged by her parents, Bhattiprolu police registered a case and took up investigation. The case hit headlines after the girl’s parents approached State Women’s Commission Chairperson Nannapaneni Rajakumari, who took up the matter with the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Seven teams were formed to trace the girl. Police teams went to various States searching for the missing girl. The then Superintendent of Police K Narayana Naik and the then South Coastal Zone Guntur Range IG N Sanjay personally monitored the case investigation. Police made a vain attempt to track down the accused with the help of his mobile phone signals.

Finally, the police got the vital clue when the accused used his ATM card to withdraw money. To their surprise, the ATM location was in Samba Sector and police teams rushed to Jammu and Kashmir.

As Nageswara Rao is familiar with the area during his tenure as a BSF jawan, he took the girl there and confined her in a house from where she was rescued and brought back to Guntur on June 7, 2017.
He was charged under Sections 363, 366 (A), 376 (II) and (I), 344 and 384 of IPC and also Section 6 of POCSO Act. The police furnished all the available evidence during the case trial. Finally, the court sentenced Nageswara Rao to life imprisonment.