Locals beat a man black and blue for allegedly raping a girl in the name of 'puja' in Donakonda

Donakonda: The locals of Rudrasamudram village in Donakonda Mandal tied a man to a tree and beat him before handing over him to the police on Sunday evening, for allegedly raping a girl for last few days, in the name of performing special puja for the peace in the family and identifying treasures.

According to the details provided by the police and locals, Gona Balaraju and Sujatha are a couple from the SC Colony in Rudrasamudram, who had disputes for a long time. Balaraju wants to end their relationship but Sujatha tries to strengthen it by performing pujas at various temples. The couple came to know about Gajjela Vishnuvardhan, a self-proclaimed tantric priest and a native of Telangana, but living at Piduguralla in Guntur district, through his local disciple Ramanjaneyulu and expressed willingness to host him for few days, until the special puja for peace and prosperity completes.

Ramanjaneyulu, who is interested in hidden treasures in the area and fascinated by the words of Vishnu that he would help in identifying them and agreed to share the treasure, brought the priest to Rudrasamudram and kept him at the house of Balaraju and Sujatha.

Vishnu claimed to perform puja in a room provided to him and announced that no one except the teenage girl of the couple enters his room at any cost, failing which they face very hard times in the future. The fearing couple followed his words and allotted their daughter, who is at home due to the vacation to school, to the works of the priest. On Sunday, the maternal uncle of the girl came home and learned about the puja and the condition of the priest. Suspected over the things happening, he checked the priest through the window and found that he is molesting the girl. The angry locals brought the priest out of the room and tie him to a tree and beat him.

The girl informed that he is abusing her since the first day of the puja and threatened to use evil spirits to kill her parents if she tells anybody about the happenings in the room. The Podili CI V Sriram, SI Phanibhushan visited the village and gathered details of the incident. The Darsi DSP K Prakasa Rao informed that they booked a case under POCSO and Prevention of Atrocities on SC, STs Act, and started the investigation.