Umesh Reddy

Some Lesser Known Facts About Umesh Reddy

• Umesh Reddy is an Indian criminal and former army and police personnel, who allegedly raped and murdered around 20 women in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. On 26 October 2006, Reddy was sentenced to death by a fast-track court established by the sessions court in Bengaluru for raping and murdering Jayashree, a 37-year-old widow from Peenya, Bangalore. The Supreme Court of India commuted his death sentence to 30-year life imprisonment in November 2022.

• He grew up in a moderate family in Basappa Malige village in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka.

• Umesh was captivated by men in uniform since childhood and always desired to become police personnel.

• In his early twenties, Reddy got himself enrolled in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and was posted as a guard at a commandant’s house in Jammu and Kashmir.

• Once, while Reddy was on duty, he tried to rape the commandant’s daughter after finding her alone at home. He was immediately arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police, but he managed to escape from police custody.

• Subsequently, Umesh moved to his hometown, where he joined the District Armed Reserve (DAR) Police. In a media conversation, a police official while talking about it, said,
  

  There were no systems in place then to check backgrounds of people, so after running away from CRPF, he came to Chitradurga and became a constable in District Armed Reserve (DAR) in 1996. But he didn’t stick around there either, because he was caught in a rape case there as well.”

• After joining the District Armed Reserve (DAR) Police, Umesh moved to Madhya Pradesh to receive his police training. On his return to Karnataka, Umesh was posted as a constable at Hiriyur taluk in the Chitradurga district.

• While serving as the DAR Police constable, Umesh got involved in a few petty crimes like robbery. He was also charged with a road rage incident, but the DAR inspector ignored it as it was a small crime.

• In November 1996, after a few months of service, Umesh attempted to rape a minor girl at KEB Colony in Chitradurga. However, the girl managed to escape after hitting him with a stone. A month later, Reddy allegedly raped and smothered a 16-year-old girl named Roopa, while she was on her way back home in the KEB Colony. In 1997, Reddy was identified by the minor girl (whom he tried to rape at the KEB Colony) during the Republic Day police parade, following which he was arrested by the police and a case was registered against him. He was also dismissed from his services by the DAR Police.

• During the police interrogation, Umesh also confessed to kidnapping, raping, and murdering Rupa. Subsequently, he, along with four others, was charged with Roopa’s murder and remanded to judicial custody. The DAR Police then took him to the Bellary jail from where Reddy escaped while he was being handed over to the Jail authorities.

• After fleeing the Bellary jail, Reddy rented a house in Bangalore. There, he raped and killed the wife of an income tax officer. He then went on a spree- raping and killing a girl in Ahmedabad, two girls in Baroda, a widow in Kunigal, two women in Mysore, and five girls in Bangalore. He was arrested by the Peenya police on 7 July 1997 while he was trying to steal some women’s undergarments. However, Reddy escaped within 24 hours, while he was being taken to the MICO Layout police station for interrogation. The police initially tried to suppress his escape, but Umesh’s father filed a habeas corpus petition (a fundamental right in the Constitution that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment) in the High Court, leading to the suspension of two police personnel and a lookout notice against Umesh.

• When the Bangalore police tightened its security to catch Reddy, he went to Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Baroda, continuing his operations. In Baroda, Reddy robbed the house of Shah, threatened his daughters, and ran away with Rs. 1 lakh and a Maruti car. When Mumbai police also started chasing him, he returned to the city and rented a room in Madavara village near Peenya.

• On 28 February 1998, he raped and murdered Jayashree Maradi Subbaiah, a 37-year-old widow and former nurse in Peenya. Reportedly, Reddy entered Jayashree’s house on the pretext of asking for water. After making an entry into the house, he threatened her and tied her to a window grill. Reddy then raped and strangled her. According to the police, he repeatedly had sex with her dead body. When Jayashree’s 8-year-old son returned from school in the evening he saw his mother lying in an unconscious state, with blood oozing from her body. Reddy, who was standing near his mother’s body, told the boy that his mother had been possessed by some evil spirit and that he was trying to get that spirit out of her. Soon, he fled the spot saying he was going to get a doctor. The boy then went to his neighbours, informing them about the incident, and the neighbours called the police. A few days later, Umesh entered another house on the pretext of inquiring about an address. When the woman raised the alarm, he tried to escape but was caught by neighbours, who called the police and handed him over to them.

• Later, Reddy again escaped police custody near Hirekerur while he was being taken to the court from jail during the hearing of the case. However, he was soon arrested in Chikkaballapur.

• Reddy escaped the police custody at Hiriyur bypass while he was being taken to Bangalore by the District Armed Reserve (DAR) personnel of Bellary in a KSRTC bus. Two months later, he was again caught. While police claimed that he was handcuffed when he fled police custody last time, Reddy denied it and said that he had consumed liquor with the escorting policeman and requested them to remove his handcuffs on the pretext of going to answer nature’s call. Once the police freed him, he ran into the fields and escaped.

• After his escape, Reddy allegedly committed four thefts and three rapes in Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, and Pune. Later, he briefly worked as a waiter at a hotel in Pune. Reddy stole cash and clothes from the hotel and fled to Dharwad. Meanwhile, he also stole three mobile phones and two credit cards.

• On 17 May 2002, Reddy took a lorry from Tumkur to Bangalore and at around 8 a. m. visited a haircutting salon in the Yeshwanthpur area to get a haircut. At the salon, he was recognised by an autorickshaw driver named Shaktivel, who saw Reddy’s photograph published in a newspaper and informed the Yeshwanthpur police. Reddy was nabbed by the police inspector Nagaraja Urs while he was walking out of the salon. Aware of Umesh’s past, the onlookers wanted to beat him, but the police pacified them and took Reddy away. Police rewarded Shaktivel with Rs. 20,000.

• Reddy was kept in solitary confinement at Hindalga jail in Belagavi for around 15 years. During his term at the Hindalga jail, Reddy was kept under tight security and was not allowed to leave his cell. A police official revealed that he woke up every day at around 5:45 in the morning and did yoga post that. He also used to read newspapers. He had to do everything inside the cell. Reddy was even served food in captivity. He put several appeals in front of the jail authorities but they all got rejected.

• Umesh Reddy confessed to raping and killing around 20 women across Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. While Reddy was pronounced guilty in 9 cases, he was exculpated in 11 cases due to a lack of sufficient evidence.

• In 2006, a fast-tract court established by the sessions court in Bengaluru for the rape and murder of Jayashree Subbaiah, announced a death sentence for Reddy. Terming his crime the most heinous, Judge K Sukanya said,
  

  It is directed that accused Umesh Reddy be hanged till death because he is a menace to society.”

  The Karnataka High Court and Supreme Court also upheld the decision. Later, Reddy filed a mercy plea in front of the President of India, which got rejected. He again filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking mercy. In November 2022, the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence and converted it to 30-year life imprisonment on the ground that he was kept in solitary confinement for 10 years.

• After studying various crime cases committed by Umesh Reddy, the police evaluated his Modus Operandi. According to the police, Reddy carefully selected his victims. He substantially targeted single women, homemakers, and widows and visited their houses in the afternoon between 11 am and 3 pm when men were usually out for work and children were in schools. He used to gain entry into the victim’s houses on the pretext of asking for water or renting an apartment. After making an entry, Reddy used to threaten them using knife, asking them to remove their clothes. He often tied the victim’s limbs and choked his mouth. Umesh raped the victims when they were unconscious and later strangled them. Umesh used to give shape to the crime of robbery gone wrong by stealing all the jewellery from the victim’s body. He also used to collect his victim’s undergarments and try them.

• Umesh had a twisted fetish for women’s lingerie. He not only stole his victim’s lingerie but also stole the lingerie of other women that they kept for drying in their balconies. Each time, he was arrested by the police, he was found wearing a bra or a panty underneath his clothes.

• The Indian media often addresses him as Jack the Ripper for the similarities in the modus operandi with Jack the Ripper, an unidentified serial killer active in London, England.

• In 2013, a Kannada film titled Umesh was released based on the real-life story of Umesh Reddy. Later, another Kannada film titled ‘Khatarnak Umesh Reddy’ was released which was also based on his real-life story.

• In the 2017 film titled Dandupalya 2 and the 2018 film titled Dandupalya 3, a character was based on Umesh Reddy which was played by Adi Lokesh. In the film, Reddy was shown as one of the inmates of the Hindalga Prison who was a member of the Dandupalya gang.

• In 2022, the OTT platform Netflix released a Kannada crime docu-series titled Indian Predator: Beast of Bangalore (Saga of a former cop-turned-predator), which was based on the story of Umesh Reddy.