Hyderabad: In a quite unexpected and chilling end to one of the biggest manhunts in the State in recent times, Pallakonda Raju, suspect in the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Saidabad, was found dead on railway tracks near Station Ghanpur in Warangal district, about 130 km from here. Police said he jumped in front of the Konark Express and ended his life.
Raju, for whom the entire police machinery in the State capital was on the lookout apart from police forces in all districts and neighbouring States being placed on alert after he went absconding last Thursday, was allegedly seen by a few agricultural workers near the tracks in the morning. Railway keymen from Nashkal, E Kumar and Sarangapani, said the workers had alerted them about a man lurking near the tracks as the two were on their morning inspection round.
“We were told a man was walking along the tracks and that he disappeared into the bushes. We waited for 10 minutes and carried on. As we covered about 200 metres, the workers called us saying the man was lying on the tracks, apparently hit by the Konark Express towards Hyderabad around 8.40 am,” said Kumar, adding that they first alerted Railway authorities before calling the police.
Warangal Commissioner of Police Tarun Joshi, stating that it was “a clear case of suicide with an eye-witness”, said the identity was confirmed on the basis of the tattoos and with the help of family members. The body was shifted to MGM Hospital in Warangal for autopsy while the Government Railway Police registered a case.
“The Station Ghanpur police got a call at 9.58 am, after which Sub-Inspector Ramesh and team visited the spot. Since we were already looking for Raju, we compared the identity marks we had and confirmed that it was him,” Joshi said, adding that Raju had relatives in Warangal and that there was always a possibility of him reaching Warangal.
Director-General of Police M Mahendar Reddy tweeted saying the ‘accused in the child sexual molestation and murder at Singareni Colony’ was found dead on the railway tracks in the limits of the Station Ghanpur PS, and that this was “declared after the verification of identification marks”.