Hyderabad cops ratchet up efforts to trace rapist-murderer

Hyderabad: The City police are leaving no stone unturned to trace the suspect Raju involved in the rape-murder of a six-year-old girl here at Saidabad on Thursday. Earlier, the police had informed that he was arrested within 24 hours of committing the crime. The IT Minister K Taraka Rama Rao also tweeted, thanking the police for their swift action. However, things turned upside down when the police issued Raju's poster stating the informant will be rewarded Rs 10 lakh. Since then the minister and the police are facing heat, as the Opposition and civil society have become a harsh critic of the government and the police. But the police top brass have taken it as a challenging case.

As the suspect's whereabouts are not yet known, a special team---consisting of a DCP, ACPs, officers from the Special Branch and Shadow Police--- has been instructed to trace Raju at the earliest. The police are adopting both advanced and traditional ways of tracing him. The police IT department has made a photo-shopped sketch of the suspect and circulated it on social media to alert the netizens how Raju might look if he changes appearance. The police officers of various stations pasted his photos on buses and auto-rickshaws, appealing to the citizens to provide information

Also, the police confirmed that he is a vagabond and is addicted to alcohol and drugs. When he was spotted at a bar in LB Nagar, he had only Rs. 700. He was wearing a cap and red scarf; had a tattoo 'Monica' on hands.

An officer, on condition of anonymity, said, "more than 1,000 police officers are working on ground to trace Raju. Though tower analysis of hiss mobile phone was done, he was not found at the respective location. We have also alerted informers; they are working to locate him. The police officers have been instructed to take a cue from Disha's case of 2019, wherein the then Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar traced the culprits and arrested them.

The Rachakonda police are also involved in the chase, as Raju was spotted in LB Nagar. The teams might also take a cue from the Hajipur rape cases wherein accused Srinivas Reddy was also arrested after a lot of hard efforts put in by officers."