Hyderabad rape: Suspected ‘suicide’ of accused Raju adds to mishmash

On September 9, a six-year-old girl who was at home in Singareni Colony, near Saidabad, in Hyderabad, while the parents went out to see the Vinayak Mandapam, was raped and murdered.

It is suspected that the neighbour Pallakonda Raju (30) had lured her with chocolates and took her to his house, where she was found raped and murdered after some time.

Some local people in Saidabad and the parents of the victim demanded that the suspect should be ‘encountered’.

The state Congress president and MP Revanth Reddy vociferously demanded an encounter, even before any enquiry was done or a charge was laid on the suspect.

In a stunning revelation, the labour minister of Telangana N. Malla Reddy declared that police will catch the suspect and he would be definitely “encountered”.

A day later, on September 16, the body of Raju was found lying on the railway track near Nashkal railway station on the Hyderabad-Kazipet route.

Immediate reactions

The DGP of Telangana police announced the death on Twitter: “The accused of “Child Sexual Molestation and murder @ Singareni Colony, found dead on the railway track, in the limits of Ghanpur Police Station. Declared after the verification of identification marks on deceased body. (sic)”

Hyderabad East Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ramesh said: “I am told that the police were chasing him, and not heeding to the warning, he jumped in front of a train.”

IT Minister KT Ramarao (KTR) also confirmed the death on his Twitter handle. KTR had a few days back tweeted that Raju had been caught by police, but immediately withdrew it and put out another tweet regretting the wrong information.

While many members of the society positively responded on social media, saying justice was done to the victim’s parents, the mother, the wife and some rights organisations did not believe the suicide theory.

Raju’s mother told reporters that the police had called the family to the police station, collected some details and left them in Uppal area of Hyderabad on September 15 evening.

She alleged that when Raju was caught three days ago, superior officers had ordered his encounter, and that he was made to “run before the staged suicide”.

She said that the police came to our house only after he was caught as part of their buildup for the ‘suicide’ theory. She also questioned whether the person killed was her son, as she had not been shown his body.

Raju’s wife Mounika also alleged that her husband’s death was not suicide, but he was killed and thrown on the track.

Meanwhile TV9 channel reported that a couple of railway linemen had seen Raju near the track. On seeing them, he had hidden himself behind nearby trees, but came out after some time. TV9 claimed that he jumped before Konark express despite the linemen shouting not to do so.

A creative theory

The incident comes while a Supreme Court-ordered probe is on against the alleged false encounter by police against the suspects in the rape of Dr Disha in Hyderabad a couple of years ago.

It is not a routine story of ‘encounter’ but a creative theory of suicide by the suspect. The ‘suicide’ of Raju on September 16 is now a big sensation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with all Telugu media channels and social media reporting various stories about the dead body on the railway track.

Many are raising doubts around the widely propagated police story of ‘suicide’.

In fact, when Congress MP Revanth Reddy and minister Malla Reddy had talked about encounter, a number of activists had moved the Telangana High Court.

A delegation of women and activists from Women and Transgender Organisation Joint Action Committee (WT-JAC) and human rights organisations in Telangana represented by V Sandhya (Progressive Organization of Women), K Satyavati (Editor, feminist magazine Bhumika), K Sajaya, independent journalist and social activist, Devi (feminist and cultural activist), Ambika (feminist activist), Sumitra (child rights activist), and Syed Bilal (Human Rights Forum), sought the immediate intervention of the acting chief justice of Telangana High Court in the wake of these ‘disturbing and irresponsible public statements’.

Also read: Hyderabad minor rape: Suspect found dead on railway tracks

They said: “Instead of demanding that the police investigate the crime on a war footing and bring the culprit to the court, the Minister and the MP have demanded for an unconstitutional remedy of execution by way of ‘encounter’. Being part of the government, such statements are not just utterly irresponsible but also encourage impunity among police and lawlessness among the people.”

They recalled that in December 2019, the court had intervened in the matter of the extra-judicial killings of four accused/suspects in the Dr Disha case, some of who are reported to be minors. Pursuant to the directions of the apex court, a judicial commission headed by Justice V Sirpurkar is inquiring into the facts and circumstances that led to the gunning down of four young men by the Shadnagar police, two years back.

After the news of Raju’s death, these organizations submitted another representation on September 16, saying: “We have genuine concerns about the reported ‘disappearance’ and sudden ‘death’ of the accused in the current Singareni colony case as well. Within a week of the rape and murder of the child, the accused Mr. Pallakonda Raju (30) ‘went missing’, the police launched a ‘manhunt’ with huge prize money to trace him, and now suddenly he is ‘found dead’.”

Just been informed by @TelanganaDGP Garu that the beast who raped the child has been traced & found dead on a railway track at station Ghanpur#JusticeForChaithra https://t.co/TCx2BHvVhG

— KTR (@KTRBRS) September 16, 2021

The organizations requested the court to immediately intervene and monitor the case to ensure that the guidelines issued and procedures established by the Supreme Court in PUCL vs State of Maharashtra case judgement dated September 23, 2014 as well as the guidelines issued from time to time by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are fully followed.

They apprehended that any delay in issuing an order by the court will further enable state authorities to conduct a hurried post mortem and cremation, thereby compromising facts.

They sought urgent directions to the Principal Secretary, Department of Home, State of Telangana to halt the cremation and preserve the body of Raju, until further orders and submit the CCTV footage of the scene of death to the court, formation of a special team of forensic experts and autopsy surgeons from outside Telangana (preferably AIIMS), to undertake an independent post-mortem and video-graphing of the post-mortem, as per NHRC guidelines, and ensure an immediate inquest of the deceased Raju by a judicial magistrate, under Sec 176 (1) (a), as per procedure established in the Code of Criminal Procedure.

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They also wanted a direction to the Principal Secretary, Department of Home, State of Telangana to transfer the investigation to a specially constituted, independent team of senior police officials for a fair and impartial investigation, in the interests of justice and requested the court to monitor the probe into the original crime of rape and murder of the six-year-old girl on September 9.

But before any response could come on this representation, Raju’s body was cremated.

Article 21 says “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law.”

Now gradually, the narration of suicide is replacing the much discredited ‘encounter’ theory. And instant justice has become a popular demand of not just uneducated masses, but the learned political representatives.