Pallakonda Raju aged 30, the sole suspect in the rape and murder of a six-year-old minor girl at Saidabad, was discovered lifeless at the railway tracks close to Station Ghanpur in Jangoan district of Telangana.
Confirming this development to The Hindu, a senior police officer stated that on Thursday morning they discovered Raju’s mangled and mutilated body at the tracks whilst the whole police department was searching for him, as he was absconded for a week.
Identification through tattoo
The police identified the body of the culprit by his hair style and a tattoo on his hand which read “Mounika”.
“We suspect he ended his life…,” the officer said. According to eyewitnesses, the incident happened around 8:40 am when Raju came under the Konark Express.
Manhunt to catch the culprit
A big manhunt was initiated for Raju and the Hyderabad city police had additionally announced a reward ₹10 lakh for any information leading to the arrest of the culprit. As a part of the large manhunt, posters putting forward Raju as a ‘WANTED’ guy were pasted on auto-rickshaws, buses, at toddy compounds, wine stores and all public locations throughout the State.
The heinous act and uproar against it
On September 9, the minor girl had gone missing from her home in Saidabad, and hours later, her lifeless body was recovered from Raju’s house, who was her neighbour. The post-mortem report of the Osmania General Hospital revealed that she was ‘sexually assaulted’ before she was strangled to death. The victim’s mom suspected Raju to be the culprit as he too was missing from his own residence.
The heinous incident has precipitated huge outrage in Hyderabad and other places in the State with various political parties and youth groups staging protests demanding justice for the minor girl. While Labour Minister Ch. Malla Reddy stated the suspect will be arrested and “encountered”, the opposition has criticised the State government and police force over the postponement in the probe.
Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali and Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod visited the girl’s residence and handed over a cheque of 20 Lakh rupees as a compensation.
