Armed burglar enters ladies hostel in Osmania University, threatens student with knife

In a shocking incident, an armed burglar entered the engineering ladies hostel in Osmania University on Thursday. The incident took place in the early hours, around 3 am. The burglar tried to steal the mobile phone of a final-year-student who was in the washroom, and threatened her with the knife when she spotted him. However, as the student made a cry for help, he ran away, and the phone fell down.

According to police, the accused entered the first floor of the hostel by removing the glass panes of the bathroom, he then spotted the final year student going to the washroom, and as her room remained open, he took her phone.

However, the victim spotted him and locked herself in her bathroom. The accused then immediately locked the rooms of other residents, and jumped into her bathroom and threatened her with the knife asking her to keep quiet. But the victim made a cry for help, following which the security guard and other hostel residents rushed to the washroom area. Panicked by this, the accused fled the spot.

Police have accessed CCTV footage in which the accused was spotted entering into the hostel.

Osmania University police said that the accused had entered the university through the rear side by scaling a wall. Though the wall had a barbed wire fencing, the accused gained entry through a small gap which did not have the wire fencing. 

He later entered the hostel through the bathroom by removing the glass panes. “Initially, he went to another nearby hostel. But as he couldn’t find anything worthwhile, he entered the ladies hostel. We have footage of him running towards the ladies hostel,” Osmania University Station House Officer Rajashekhar Reddy told TNM.

“The way he is seen moving in the university suggests that he knows the premises very well,” he added.

“The investigation is underway, using the footage we will nab the intruder soon,” the SHO said.

Police have filed a case under sections 457 (trespassing), 380 (theft), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, the students claim that there is a lack of proper security in the ladies hostel where the incident took place. “We have been told that a similar incident of some burglar entering the same hostel happened three months ago, yet no measure to augment the security seems to have taken place. The students are worried about the security. Outsiders coming into the university and openly drinking in the premises have become a regular occurence. The police too have been lenient on this,” a student told TNM.

However, the Registrar Ch Gopal Reddy denied these claims. “We have all the security measures in place along with regular patrolling. There is no truth to the claims that the security is inadequate,” he said.