Accused in Hyderabad rape-murder of 6-year-old commits suicide

Hyderabad, Sep 16:  The accused in last week's horrific incident of rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Hyderabad, was found dead on railway track on Thursday while the police termed it a clear case of suicide.

The body of Pallakonda Raju (30) was found dead on the rail tracks near Station Ghanpur in Jangaon district on Thursday, police said.

Warangal Police Commissioner Tarun Joshi said a railway employee saw a man walking on the track and tried to pull him away but he came under the track. "It's a clear case of suicide. There is no doubt about it," the police official told media persons at the spot.

He said the police received information about 10 a.m. that a body was lying on the railway track. "Sub-inspector of police reached there to begin investigation. Since the entire state police was looking for the accused and we had all the details about him, it was confirmed from identification marks that it is the body of Raju," the police commissioner said.

Police have shifted the body for autopsy and informed Raju's family members.

Earlier, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy took to Twitter to confirm the incident.

"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," tweeted the DGP.

As the head was completely crushed under the train, the deceased was identified with the tattoo marks 'Mounika' on his hands.

Telangana's minister for industry K.T. Rama Rao also tweeted about the accused's suicide

"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," tweeted the minister who had earlier come under criticism for tweeting that the accused was arrested.

The minister later regretted the erroneous statement saying he was misinformed.

The accused killed himself as police had launched a massive search for him following a public outrage over the horrific incident in Singareni Colony in Saidabad area.

The child went missing on September 9 from her house. Her body was later found in the house of her neighbour Raju. The autopsy report revealed that she was sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

The incident sparked massive outrage with local residents staging protests. The protesters and even some politicians who visited the victim's house had demanded that the accused be killed in encounter.

Minister for labour Malla Reddy had also made a sensational comment that the culprit will be caught and killed in encounter.

Police had announced reward of Rs 10 lakh for information leading to the arrest of the fugitive.

Several teams comprising hundreds of policemen were engaged in search operations in the limits of three police commissionerates - Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda.

Wanted posters with pictures of Raju were posted on walls, buses and auto-rickshaws.

With pressure mounting on the state government over its alleged failure to track down the culprit nearly a week after the incident, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy was personally monitoring the case.

He had directed the police commissioners to intensify the search operation.

Personnel of Commissioner's Task Force and Special Operation Team (SOT) were also roped in for the massive search operations.

As the accused is likely to change his attributes to evade arrest, the police on Wednesday released few computer generated most probable disguised images.