New Delhi: Telangana police have claimed that the man wanted in the case of the rape and murder of a six-year old girl in Hyderabad, P. Raju, was found dead on a railway track in Jangaon district on Thursday, September 16.
Telangana Director General of Police M. Mahendar Reddy tweeted that the accused was identified after verification of marks on his body. He also posted four photographs, three of which showed what are purportedly parts of the accused man’s body, bearing the identification marks. The fourth photograph shows a body on the train tracks.
“The accused of “Child Sexual Molestation and murder @ Singareni Colony, found dead on the railway track, in the limits of #StationGhanpurPoliceStation. Declared after the verification of identification marks on deceased body,” Reddy wrote on Twitter.
A senior police official from Janagaon said the body with head injuries was found on the track in Station Ghanpur and the police reached the spot after locals noticed it on the track at around 9.45 am.
The police suspect that the accused, 30-year old Raju, jumped in front of a moving train, an official told PTI. Earlier, police had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for anyone who came forward with information about him.
— హైదరాబాద్ సిటీ పోలీస్ Hyderabad City Police (@hydcitypolice) September 14, 2021
Police had named Raju as the accused in the murder and rape of his six-year-old neighbour at Saidabad on September 9. The incident triggered protests by residents of the locality who had raised slogans and demanded the quick arrest of the culprit.
A day ago, K.T. Rama Rao, Telangana minister of municipal administration and urban development, tweeted that the “perpetrator had been arrested within hours of the incident”. However, when it later surfaced that the minister’s claims were false, massive protests erupted in the locality.
Telangana ministers Mohammed Mahmood Ali and Satyavathi Rathod on Thursday met the parents of the child and offered them a cheque for Rs 20 lakh as ex-gratia, an official release said.
In the aftermath of Raju’s death being announced, many on social media pointed to the similarity of the outcome in this case and that of the 2019 brutal rape and murder of the veterinarian. In the latter, the four accused died after Telangana police fired at them shortly after arresting them. Police claimed they had attempted to escape while a crime scene recreation was afoot. The police’s version is being examined by a judicial inquiry panel at present.
(With PTI inputs)