Warangal Urban: With no eyewitnesses to throw light on the gruesome murder of nine persons, including a four-old-year boy, who were found dead in an open well at Gorrekunta village on May 21, police officials initially found the case a hard nut to crack.
But thanks to the CCTV footage, call data and other technical evidences including the FSL report, they solved the case within a short span of time and succeeded in getting capital punishment for the accused, Sanjay Kumar Yadav (24) of Begusarai district in Bihar. The case created a sensation across the nation since the victims were innocent daily wage labourers.
“While the bodies of four members of Mohammad Maqsood’s family were found in the well on the morning of May 21, bodies of five others, including two sons of Maqsood, two Bihari youths and one Mohammad Shakeel, were found the next day. Initially, we thought it was a suicide pact. But we were not fully convinced since two Bihari youths and another person were also found dead in the same incident.
Following this, we questioned several persons including the owner of the gunny bag making unit where the victims were working, but achieved no breakthrough in the case,” said an official who was part of the investigating team.
“We had even taken Sanjay Kumar Yadav into custody and let him go after he feigned ignorance. But after analysing the CCTV footage in the locality, we started suspecting him and evidence came in handy when we found that he had come to the crime scene around 5 pm on May 20 and left the place at 6 am next day. Soon after this, our teams went to Janpaka in Geesugonda mandal on May 25 where he was living and took him into custody immediately. We also found cell phones of Maqsood and others in the possession of Sanjay Kumar. Had there been any delay on our part, he would have escaped,” the police official added.
Subsequently, the police interrogated Sanjay Kumar and came to the conclusion that he had committed the horrible crime by lacing their food with sleeping pills purchased from a medical shop in Warangal Chowrasta on May 18. The brutal act was pre-planned and well executed by Sanjay Kumar.
“The accused dumped the bodies into the well one after another, packing each body in a gunny bag. He began the task around midnight and completed it by 5 am,” the official said. “The FSL report from Hyderabad also helped us immensely in proving the guilt of the accused. It was clearly established that the victims were alive before being dumped into the well,” a police official said.
Taking it as a serious crime, the police under the guidance of the then Commissioner of Police Ravinder filed the charge-sheet within a record time of 25 days. The police submitted a 485-page charge-sheet and produced 67 witnesses in the case. The court completed the trial in 36 days after the filing of the charge-sheet. The police also produced 53 documentary evidences and 44 material evidences. Additional Public Prosecutor, 1ST ADJ court, Mokila Satyanarayana Goud and his assistant Mohammed Sardar played a key role in ensuring death penalty for the accused.
While several teams were formed to collect evidences and probe the case, sources said that Parvathagiri Inspector Pulyala Kishan played a vital role in the investigation besides Mamnoor ACP Shyam Sunder and Geesugonda Inspector Jupally Shivaramaiah. Incharge DCP Venkatalaxmi monitored the probe round the clock to apprehend the culprit.
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