The Telangana High Court has ordered a judicial probe into the death by suicide of Pallakonda Raju, the accused in the rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Hyderabad.
Raju, who was elusive for a week despite a massive manhunt by the state police was found dead on a railway track, near the station Ghanpur, about 130 km northeast of the city on Thursday morning.
His wife Mounika and mother Eeramma alleged that the police would have caught and killed him but are projecting it as a case of suicide. A petition was filed in the High Court by civil rights activists alleging that Raju was executed by the police.
The court which heard the arguments from the petitioner and the state representative has directed the Warangal III metropolitan magistrate to probe the death and submit a report in a sealed cover within four weeks. The high court has ordered that the video recordings of the seven witness statements, post-mortem etc should be handed over to the magistrate within a day.
The heinous rape and murder of the girl child took place on September 9 in the Singareni Colony, under the Saidabad police station limits in the city. Raju (about 30), a daily wage earner and neighbour of the girl's family, allegedly abducted her and resorted to sexual molestation. The girl's body, with bite marks, was reportedly found at Raju's dwelling and he was found to be missing since the crime came to light.
In the days after the crime, opposition parties attacked the K Chandrasekhar Rao government, alleging law and order failure. While the public was outraged, there was a growing chorus especially on social media to “kill the culprit in an encounter.” The popular reference was to the “encounter killing” of the four accused in the rape and murder of a young veterinarian “Disha” in Hyderabad in December 2019.
Echoing such views, TRS minister Malla Reddy had said that the perpetrator “would be caught and killed in an encounter.” The media focus added to the police search and statements like "encounter killing" is believed to have pushed the suspect to take the extreme step.
According to the witnesses at the spot, Raju threw himself before the fast-approaching Konark Express and was killed instantly.
Earlier on Friday, state DGP Mahender Reddy stated that there should be no doubts about Raju's death, as there are seven eye-witnesses, including the two drivers of the train and farmers in the adjoining fields, of him jumping before the train and run over by it.
“This is 100 per cent a case of suicide. All the direct witness statements are recorded, what more evidence would one need? There is no need for anyone to tell lies here and it is not correct to spread canards, creating baseless doubts in the people's minds,” Reddy told reporters.
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