MUCHUMARRI (NANDYAL DISTRICT): We cannot wait anymore, we want to see our daughter, the distraught father of the eight-year-old, who was allegedly raped and murdered by three minor boys and pushed into a canal in Muchumarri village of Nandyal district, begged the police even as the victim's mother shed tears of agony.
The parents saw their daughter seven days ago. On July 7, she had left home to play in a nearby ground but never came back.
Overcome by anger, grief and helplessness, the minor girl's parents demanded the police to trace their child's body.
A close relative of the victim raised concerns over the safety of their daughters, stating that they are scared to send the girls to school considering that individuals harbouring malicious intentions wandered free in the village.
"There is utmost need to take steps to change the behaviour of such children (referring to the accused), otherwise our village and the society at large will be at a great loss," she opined.
During police investigation, the three boys confessed that they committed the crime.
Another girl, the victim's playmate, also witnessed the incident.
Villagers concerned over probe
While police have attributed the delay in finding the body to misleading statements given by the boys, villagers are refusing to buy this argument. Locals believe that influential people are working to weaken the case.Locals suspect the hand of influential people to dilute minor’s rape case
Subsequently, police had launched a search operation in the backwaters of the River Krishna near the Muchumarri lift irrigation project pump house on July 10. Five days on, they have had no success in tracing the girl’s body.
Two teams, each of NDRF and SDRF personnel, have been deployed for the search operation. Though police are not hopeful of finding the body in the river, they have also investigated other places where the boys claimed to have disposed of the body.
Nandyal district superintendent of police K Raghuveer Reddy said the investigation has been intensified and they are now questioning the family members of the accused and the victim as well as other villagers.
While police have attributed the delay in finding the body to the misleading statements given by the three accused, the villagers are refusing to buy this argument. The locals believe that influential people are working behind the scenes to weaken the case.
Villagers are also starting to suspect the involvement of the elders in the families of the accused in disposing the victim’s body. They are raising doubts over the police’s inability to trace the body even though the accused are in their custody.
Admitting that there is increasing pressure from the villagers to trace the victim’s body, a police officer, involved in the investigation, said they are probing the case thoroughly and are now focusing on getting the facts from the families of the accused.
Pagidala Tahsildar GV Nageswara Rai said as mandal magistrate, he was extending full support to the police department in the investigation. “We will cooperate with police from our side to bring out the facts in the case,” he asserted.