A dispute between a tenant and his landlord made the latter a thief.
According to Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagavath, one Nikethan, who sells books, hired a godown of one Srinivas Reddy for rent to keep his books intended for sale. Nikethan stopped paying the rent regularly over the last few months. Annoyed at this, godown owner Srinivas Reddy looted Rs 3 crores worth books from the godown and sold them to a Begum Bazaar bookseller named Raziuddin for Rs 17 lakhs.
Discovering the theft of the books, Nikethan lodged a complaint with the police. The police quizzed Srinivas Reddy, who admitted that he, along with his father, took away the books and sold them. The police took Srinivas Reddy, his father Narasimha Reddy and Raziuddin into custody, and seized books worth Rs 3.24 crores from them.
The Commissioner said that they had discovered that the books were all quite expensive, with the prices ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 each. The police seized six lorry loads of books from the accused, he said.