How ATM robbery in AP blew the lid off alleged serial murders of senior citizens

The Vijayawada City Police have arrested a five-member gang in these killings.
Representative image for murder
Representative image for murder
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In October 2020, 58-year-old Nalini, who lived alone at her residence in the Poranki suburb of Vijayawada, passed away. As there were no external injuries on her body, her relatives did not find anything suspicious about the circumstances of her death. Over the next nine months, three more women who lived by themselves in and around Vijayawada — 63-year-old Sitamahalakshmi, 58-year-old Dhanalakshmi, and 85-year-old Papamma — died. No foul play was suspected, considering their age and the ongoing pandemic. And this was precisely the reasoning that a five-member gang of alleged serial killers were banking on, according to Vijayawada police. The gang has allegedly killed at least six senior citizens so far, deliberately targeting elderly persons living alone and stealing their gold ornaments. 

How the crime came to light

On June 12 this year, a few men made an unsuccessful attempt to break open an ATM machine near Poranki centre. After interrogating a few men in the area with a history of crime, a few auto drivers and suspects linked to another recent theft case in Tadigadapa, the Penamaluru police took five young men into custody. The appalling details of the alleged serial murders came to light during the course of investigation, a statement from the Vijayawada City Police Commissioner’s office said. 

All five accused are young men between 20 and 22 years of age. Three of them work as auto drivers, one of them as a vegetable seller and one works as a painter. According to the police, the group of youngsters became acquainted as they lived in neighbouring localities. They allegedly came up with the idea that if they murdered elderly persons living alone and stole from them, no one would suspect foul play, especially amid the pandemic, and they would be buried in haste with the cause of death presumed to be COVID-19 or natural causes. They allegedly targeted elderly persons in and around Vijayawada and performed recce operations before going on to kill them and steal their gold. 

Apart from the four elderly women whose deaths did not arouse suspicion, the gang allegedly broke into the house of an elderly couple — 80-year-old Nageswara Rao and 75-year-old Pramila Rani — in December 2020, killed them, and stole their gold ornaments. In this incident, a case had been registered at the Kanchikacherla police station. The accused have also been linked to another theft case where gold ornaments were stolen from a house in Tadigadapa in March 2021, after someone broke into the house at midnight. 

The accused are believed to have killed six persons and stolen 40 tolas of gold from them. According to the police, the gang had identified a few more such lonely elders living in and around Vijayawada, in Kankipadu, Vuyyuru, Penamaluru, Tenali, and Mangalagiri, and had already completed their recce operations. They have now been arrested and sent to judicial remand, and will be taken into police custody for further investigation, Vijayawada police said. 

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