The accused in the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Hyderabad's Saidabad was found dead on the railway tracks at Ghanpur station in Telangana on Thursday, 16 September.
Thirty-year-old Pallakonda Raju had been absconding since the incident was reported on 9 September but was seen in CCTV footage in LB Nagar area a day after the crime was reported.
What the Police Said
Warangal Police Commissioner Tarun Joshi, as quoted by ANI said: "Information (of the body being there) was given by a Railway employee who was checking the railway track. He is an eyewitness to the incident. A case has been registered by the Government Railway Police. His body has been shifted. It's a clear case of suicide as per the eyewitness".
"He informed us that he found this man (accused) walking on the track and he (the employee) tried to get him out of the track but he started running during which a train hit him and he died on the spot. We confirmed his identity through his family members," Joshi added.
Earlier, the DGP of Telangana Police tweeted that the accused's identity was ascertained after the verification of identification marks on his body.
Calls for Encounter
On Tuesday, Hyderabad police had announced a Rs 10 lakh reward for any information leading to arrest of the accused in the case.
Meanwhile, the same day, Telangana Labour Minister Malla Reddy had said that the accused in the case "will be killed in an encounter", according to a report by The Times of India.
This was just a day after the state's Congress chief Revanth Reddy had demanded a similar punishment for the accused.
"We will definitely arrest him and will do the encounter," Reddy had told reporters.
'Degradation of Faith in the Rule of Law'
On Wednesday evening, a delegation of women and activists from Women and Transgender Organisation Joint Action Committee (WT-JAC) and human rights organisations in Telangana, submitted a memorandum at the residence of the acting chief justice of Telangana High Court, seeking his immediate intervention in the 'disturbing and irresponsible public statements' made by the two elected representatives.
The delegation included 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).
Expressing grave concern on the statements, their letter stated, "We feel that the statement of the said Minister and that of a duly elected member of Parliament is unconstitutional and amounts to degradation of faith in the rule of law. Instead of demanding that the police should 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 encourages impunity among the police and lawlessness among the people, the letter added.
It also stated that it was irresponsible for the minister and MP to make such statements at a time when the commission of inquiry led by Justice V Sirpurkar is still inquiring the circumstances that led to the killing of the four men by Shadnagar police in the Disha rape and murder case.
Considering all this, the delegation requested the acting chief justice to punish the two elected representatives for "contempt of the due process of law."
They also requested him to direct the principal secretary of Telangana's Home Department to transfer the investigation to a special team of senior police officials to ensure a fair and impartial investigation into the rape and murder of the six-year-old.
'Halt Cremation of the Accused, Conduct Independent Post Mortem'
The group Committee on Thursday demanded the Telangana High Court halt cremation of the deceased rape and murder accused and conduct an independent post mortem as per guidelines of the Supreme Court and National Human Rights Council.
The groups further demanded the court to direct the Department of Home Affairs to halt the cremation and preserve the body of the accused, until further orders from the Court 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, was also demanded.
The body of the child had been found in the house of the accused and the man is said to have befriended the child by offering her chocolates before committing the offence.
The incident led to protests outside the residence of the accused and residents had pelted stones at the house.
(With inputs from ANI, The News Minute and The Times of India.)
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