Gorantla suspicious death: Man arrested, booked for rape, suicide of Andhra pharmacy student

Days after ruling out rape in the Gorantla case, the Andhra Pradesh police has on Monday booked 32-year-old Md Sadiq on the charges of raping and abetting the suicide of a pharmacy student.

The victim, Tejaswini (21), was in the third year of a pharmacy course in a Tirupati college while Sadiq, who studied till class 10, manages a brick kiln at Gorantla, a small town in Sri Satya Sai district. On Thursday, she was found hanging under suspicious circumstances in a room belonging to Sadiq.

While the police said that both were in a relationship for the past few years, Tejaswini's parents and locals had accused Sadiq of raping and killing her.

The accused was arrested on Sunday and the bike he used to take Tejaswini to the room in a farm at Mallapalle and his mobile phone were seized.

“A case was registered last week under section 302 (murder) based on the parent's complaint. Now, after the post-mortem report from the Penukonda government hospital, we have added IPC sections 376 (rape) and 306 (abetment of suicide),” Ramakanth S, DSP, Dharmavaram said. Sadiq is also booked under section 420 (cheating) for sexually exploiting Tejaswini on the promise of marriage.

Sadiq was produced before a court which sent him to 14 day judicial custody.

The case is handed over to Disha, a special unit of the Andhra Pradesh police dealing with crime against women, for a quick probe, filing of charge-sheet and trial.

“We have added the rape etc., sections also based on Sadiq's confessional statements on Sunday. The results of the vaginal swabs etc sent for forensic analysis would throw more light in the case,” Ramakanth told DH.

State BJP leaders are drawing comparisons of the Gorantla case with the alleged love jihad episodes elsewhere in the country and are demanding a judicial inquiry.

“Sadiq was involved in such an incident earlier too and the whole event has similarities to Love-Jihad. He lured her in the name of love despite objections from parents. The girl ended up dead,” Chandra Mouli, vice-president, Andhra Pradesh BJP told DH.

Police said they would probe all the aspects, “but as of now no one has made such a complaint.”