An accused in a POCSO case, who had been on the run after killing six persons three days ago, was found dead in neighbouring Rangareddy district on Monday, police said.
P Rajkumar, a farmer, had allegedly murdered six persons–including a minor girl and two members of her family that had filed the POCSO case against him, besides his wife and two children on the night of July 10 in Rangareddy district.
The accused had stabbed the six victims and slit their throats.
He was absconding since then, even as the police had announced a cash reward of Rs 2 lakhs for anyone providing credible information leading to Rajkumar’s apprehension and formed 12 teams and launched a massive hunt to nab him.
At around 3 pm on Monday, some residents alerted the police on ‘Dial 100’ after noticing a dead body of an unidentified person lying on the outskirts of Penjarla village of Kothur mandal of Rangareddy district, following which a police team reached the spot.
“We were searching for him (Rajkumar)…We had information about the clothes he was wearing on the day of the incident (killing of six persons) and his physique. We checked up, and the body was found to be (of) the same (Rajkumar) person here,” Future City Police Commissioner Tarun Joshi told reporters.
Police informed his family members, who also identified the body to be that of Rajkumar, the official further said.
Police found one cell phone (in aeroplane mode), bus tickets, Rs 1,260 cash in his pockets besides one bottle of herbicide beside the body, he said.
“Maybe he has consumed it (herbicide). The body would be sent for post-mortem examination. It appears, from the scene of crime, may be he consumed the herbicide. So, that could be the possible cause of death,” the Commissioner said.
The official further said police found a video of two minutes and 26 seconds, in the gallery of the cell phone.
Rajkumar recorded the video on the evening of July 10 before the incident, in which he clearly says that he was fed up (lost interest in life) and says that he wanted to commit suicide, Joshi said.
In the video, Rajkumar claimed that the family of the girl cheated him after collecting money from him.
Alleging injustice, Rajkumar blamed the girl’s family members for causing financial loss and stated that’s why he resorted to the killings and his own suicide. He demanded action be taken against the girl’s family members, whom he named in the video.
Saying he lost his farm lands which are supposed to be inherited by his two sons, he (Rajkumar) further said the girl’s family is trying to send him to jail by filing a case against him.
The accused and the minor girl’s family were neighbours in Shabad mandal earlier, police said.
The Commissioner further said he was addicted to online betting and gambling and had taken loans, which his family believed had left him under severe stress.
Due to online betting, he was maintaining 16 SIM cards and several phones. It seems he owes a debt of over Rs 2 crore because of the betting.
His family had said he had cleared a large portion of his debts by selling his share of property (land), police said.
During investigation, it was revealed that he had attempted suicide in October last year by consuming pesticide due to mounting debts, police said.
According to police, the accused initially went to the house of the minor girl in Shabad and killed her mother and maternal grandmother, and then took the minor girl in a car to his native village of Dhaivalguda and stabbed her to death near a lake.
Rajkumar also killed his wife and his two sons, aged four and one-and-a-half years, the Commissioner said.
Immediately after the murders on July 10, the accused called his father and confessed to the crimes, telling him that he was going to take his own life and switched off his phone, he said.
The parents of the accused then reported the matter to the police.
The man was booked under the POCSO Act in May this year for stalking and harassing the minor girl, based on a complaint filed by the girl’s family.
He had recently secured anticipatory bail in the case, police said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
