Life imprisonment to death sentence: Rachakonda police secure 8 convictions in rape, murder cases in 2020

Hyderabad: A long wait for justice ended on February 6, 2020 when a trial court sentenced Marri Srinivas Reddy to death in the infamous Hajipur triple-rape and murder case.Thanks to the efforts of Rachakonda commissionerate, the case was taken to the logical conclusion, and three poor families of Hajipur finally saw the dawn of justice.

Hajipur incident sparked national outrage in 2019. A serial rapist on the loose offered a lift to a 14-year-old girl when she was waiting for a bus at Bommalaramam. He took her to his agricultural well adjacent to his village and tried to sexually abuse her. When she raised alarm, the accused gagged her threw her into the well.

Later the accused also jumped into the well and raped her. The investigation found he strangulated her to death using her scarf. He buried the body in the same well along with her clothes in order to conceal the evidence.

This was just the tip of the iceberg. A month earlier, Srinivas Reddy gave a lift to another girl who was on her way to college. He took her to the same well where he raped and killed her in a similar fashion.

They were no ordinary cases for the Rachakonda police to investigate. The case was entrusted to Investigating officer N Bhujanga Rao, Assistant Commissioner of police, Bhongir division.During the course of the investigation, the cops exhumed the body. The FSL examined cloths and confirmed seminal stains on the clothes of the deceased.

Bones of the deceased and blood samples of the parents were forwarded to Forensic Science Laboratory. The FSL confirmed that the DNA of the victims matched with the DNA of the parents.

But what came as a breakthrough for the cops was the overlapping of the accused mobile locations and victim location on google map and locations of the victim and accused were found at the scene of the crime on March 7, 2019.

The cops examined 101 witnesses. The investigation was completed in a record time of two months and a chargesheet was filed in August. On request of Rachakonda Police Commissioner, POCSO Cases Court, Nalgonda conducted a speedy trial in all three cases.

The trial commenced in all 3 cases in October. Around 101 witnesses and evidence were examined by the court. The Court marked 210 exhibits and 63 MOs in all the cases. Arguments completed by January and the judgment was pronounced in February.These three cases are part of eight convictions secured in rape cases during the year 2020 by the Rachakonda Commissionerate.

In another case reported at Hayath Nagar, accused Ravi Shekar was sentenced to life. The accused, 48, promised the victim a job and kidnapped her in July 2019. She was rescued a week later and Ravi was arrested soon after. Initially, a kidnapping case was registered at Hayathnagar police station. Later, police found that Ravi had sexually assaulted her multiple times in the captivity.

This was also another extra-ordinary case. The investigation found that the accused hailed from AP State. He posed as Vigilance Officer, Income Tax Officer and extorted money. His modus operandi included befriending women on the pretext of providing jobs, money, and loans to construct houses.

Since 2001, he was involved in as many as 38 cases of cheating the innocent general public with false promises including jobs. He posed a government officer in AP, Telangana, and Karnataka and looted the public.

Life imprisonment:

In a 6 year old case, accused Vadla Ravi Kumar, a carpenter by profession raped 14-yrs old from Saroornagar on the pretext of marriage. But the accused was already married, the crime dates back to when he took the girl to Sadasivapet exploited her.

Based on a complained filed by the girl, the case was investigation. A local court in November sentenced him to life in imprisonment.

20 years of imprisonment:

A local court here sentenced four persons accused in the 2019 Maheshwaram gang rape case were sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment. A fine of Rs. 2,000 was also imposed on each of the accused.

The four persons and the victim hailed from Odisha and worked at JMB brick kiln in Telangana's Maheshwaram. On the night of 16 August 2019, the victim had gone to relieve herself when the men followed her, dragged her into the bushes, and raped her.

The Maheshwaram police arrested the four men on 22 August 2019 and remanded them to judicial custody. Stating that the activities of the offenders were prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, the Rachakonda commissioner of police invoked the PD Act against them on 4 November 2019 and detained them in Cherlapally Central prison.

The commissioner also wrote to the MSJ court at LB Nagar requesting speedy trial of the case. The LB Nagar special court for atrocities against women examined 27 witnesses during the trial and convicted the offenders on Monday. They were sentenced to 20 years in prison

7 Years imprisonment

Kommakula Ramu (25) along with his friends Kishan and Chiryala Anand, lured a minor from Yadagirigutta on the pretext of marriage. Ramu took her to Vijayawada and subsequently married her. Both stayed back in Vijayawada where the crime took place. Later the couple returned to Telangana, but the girl was dumped at Yadagirigutta bus stand.

The Yadagirigutta acted on a complained filed by the girl and investigated the case. In February, a local court sentenced Ramu to 7 year of imprisonment.

Other convictions secured by Rachakonda Police

1. Accused K.Mahesh Chary was convicted to undergo one imprisonment for sexually assault case reported at Ibtahimpatnam

2. Accused G.Narsimha was convicted to undergo 2 years imprisonment in a rape case reported from Uppal.