Hyderabad: 10 lakh reward for info on rape-murder suspect

Hyderabad: City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar on Tuesday announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh to any person who gives information regarding the absconding accused Pallakonda Raju, who is involved in the rape-murder of a minor girl aged six.

The girl went missing from her residence on Thursday. After her family lodged a complaint, the police began a search. They found her body at a neighbour's house on Friday morning.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the girl had been raped, but the police waited for the autopsy report. After two days, when it was confirmed that she was raped-murdered, they began an intensive search to nab Raju.

According to highly placed sources, a meeting was held at the Police Commissioner's office on Tuesday, wherein the East zone DCP, the Task Force DCP, ACPs and other officers of Saidabad PS held discussions on the absconding accused. The police got crucial evidence in CCTV footage on Thursday showing the accused walking out of a bar with a friend.

A police officer, on condition of anonymity, said, "As our teams are working on cracking the case. We found a CCTV grab of the accused emerging from a local bar in LB Nagar on Thursday, which means he might have walked into the bar after committing the offence. We have detained his friend for questioning, but he denied involvement in the crime. He went on denying that he does not know that Raju had committed the crime.

Investigations revealed that the accused was involved in bike robbery cases. Due to bad behaviour his wife left him. Raju's family members from Nalgonda have been detained and are being questioned by the police since the incident occurred.

Minister warns of stern action in rape-murder case

Labour Minister Ch Malla Reddy on Tuesday warned that the government will punish the accused in Saidabad incident of rape-murder of a six-year-old girl, which led to protests.

Reacting in the incident, he told a press conference here that the government will surely punish the accused, Raju, for the 'heinous' crime.

"The police will catch the culprit in the alleged sensational rape-murder of the girl. The government will help the victims' family, the minister stated. "Several teams of police are searching for the criminal, who is absconding."

Reddy said the police will soon get the accused and see that he is punished. While the victim's family members are demanding stern action against him, people want the police to kill that youth in an encounter.