Andhra woman found dead on lover's farm, family alleges rape, murder

Tensions are rife in Gorantla, a small town in Andhra Pradesh close to the Karnataka border after a B. Pharmacy student was found hanging in a room under suspicious circumstances on Thursday.

The death is suspected to be a fallout of an interfaith love affair between B Tejaswini (21) and Md Sadiq (32).

While police are calling it a suicide, a girl's family members are alleging a rape, torture and murder.

According to Jaya Naik, SHO, Gorantla police station, the man and woman were in a relationship for the past three years despite objections from their parents. Both families lived in the same locality of the town.

The girl's family had shifted to another place but Sadiq continued to pursue her. Tejaswini was in the third year of a pharmacy course in a college in Tirupati while Sadiq, who has studied till 10th class, manages a brick kiln.

On Wednesday, Tejaswini came from Tirupati to Kokkanti X Road in a bus upon Sadiq's reques. From there, he took her on his motorbike to a shed-like building in their 1.5-acre farm at Mallapalle, near Gorantla.

“An argument ensued between the two there with the girl asking him to marry her. Sadiq said he needs time to convince his mother and family members. Late in the evening, he went to his home. Tejaswini called him on mobile, prodding him to take a decision that night itself. Sadiq told her to shut up and wait, and that he will return after his mother goes to sleep. When he came back, he found the door latched from inside and from a window saw the girl hanging. Panicked, he ran away to his home. He approached a community elder on Thursday morning and the matter came to our notice,” Naik told DH.

The girl's family is accusing physical, and sexual assault by Sadiq who they said had lured their young daughter in the name of love.

Pointing out that there are scratch-like wounds on the girl's body, the family, locals and opposition parties are alleging that the police are trying to protect the accused by covering up the rape-murder as a suicide.

The TDP has held protests at the Penukonda Government Hospital where the postmortem was carried out. A second postmortem was conducted on Friday to confirm results.

“Both postmortems showed the cause of death as suicide by hanging. To know if there was intercourse between the two, vaginal swabs were collected and sent for forensic analysis. The report might take one week to arrive,” Naik said.

Accusing Sadiq of murdering Tejaswini, AP BJP chief Somu Veerraju alleged that he has a history of such crimes “but the police is dallying on investigation”.

“The police response in the case is raising doubts among the state's public that a situation is being created to appease one community,” Somu said in a letter to AP DGP Rajendranath Reddy on Friday demanding a thorough probe and punishment for Sadiq.