Hyderabad: Pallakonda Raju (30), accused of rape and murder of a six-year-old girl at Saidabad, was found dead on the railway tracks near Station Ghanpur in Jangoan district of Telangana on Thursday.
Confirming the development, a senior police officer shared images of the body on Twitter. Though the body has yet to be identified, the police said he had the same tattoos as the rape-murder suspect.
“AttentionPlease : 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,” the officer tweeted.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident took place around 8.40 am when Raju came under Hyderabad-bound Konark Express.
A massive manhunt was launched for Raju after he fled away after the incident.
As part of the massive manhunt, posters declaring Raju a ‘WANTED’ man were pasted on auto-rickshaws, buses, at toddy compounds, wine shops and all public places across the State.
On September 9, the minor had gone missing from her home in Saidabad, and hours later, her body was recovered from Raju’s house, who was her neighbour. The autopsy at Osmania General Hospital has confirmed that she was ‘sexually assaulted’ before she was strangled to death. The victim’s mother suspected Raju to be the culprit as he too was missing from his house.
The heinous incident has triggered widespread outrage in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the State with various political parties and youth groups staging protests demanding justice for the minor girl.
