The search for seven-year-old Deepthisree ended on Monday afternoon after her body was found tied up in a sack in the Upputeru canal near the Indrapalem bridge. The child from Kakinada town in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh went missing on Friday. Police had deployed search teams to look for Deepthisree’s body in the Upputeru canal and the Sanjaynagar dumping yard, based on their interrogation of the child’s stepmother Santhikumari, who is believed to have murdered the child and dumped her body in the canal.
CCTV footage showed Deepthisree being walked out of the school by a woman on Friday afternoon during lunch time. The woman was seen leaving with the child on a bike, accompanied by a man. While the footage showed the woman’s head and face covered by a cloth, eyewitnesses had reportedly informed the police that it was Santhikumari who had picked up Deepthisree from school. On being interrogated, Santhikumari reportedly confessed to having killed the child, mentioning multiple locations where the child’s body could be found.
Based on her statements, police had deployed a rescue team consisting of 15 members with 3 boats to search for the body in the Upputeru canal. The team was led by Dharmadi Satyam, who also led the boat extraction operation following the Godavari boat tragedy in Devipatnam. The rescue team was informed that the body might have been dumped at the Indrapalem bridge, located at a distance of 3 kms from the point where the stream meets the sea. The search operation which began on Sunday morning continued till Monday afternoon, when the body was found tied up in a sack, under the Indrapalem bridge.
Speaking to the media, the child’s grandmother had earlier voiced her suspicion of Santhakumari’s involvement. The grandmother also alleged that Santhikumari had previously physically assaulted the child. Deepthisree was living with her paternal aunt, and was usually dropped and picked up from school by her father or aunt, her grandmother said.
Police have taken the stepmother into custody and booked her for Deepthisree’s murder. The identity of the man on the bike who cooperated in the kidnapping is yet to be identified. Police are investigating the motive for the murder, and the involvement of other individuals.
Earlier this month, a seven-year-old girl who went missing in the Bhavanipuram suburb of Vijayawada was found dead. After a 24-hour search, her body was found stuffed in a sack in a neighbour’s house.