A 21-year-old Engineering student belonging to the Lambada community, categorised as Scheduled Tribes, was brutally killed and mutilated by his friend for allegedly being in touch with the latter’s girlfriend. The crime took place in Abdullapurmet in the outskirts of Hyderabad. Though it took place on February 17, the crime came to light only on Friday, February 24, when the accused surrendered before the Abdullapurmet police and confessed.
The accused, a final year engineering student at Auroral Engineering College in Hyderabad, invited the deceased on the pretext of a get-together, picked a fight with him, and killed him. According to reports, P Hari Hara Krishna (21) beheaded Naveen, sliced open his belly, ripped his heart out, and chopped off his genitalia as an act of revenge, and sent pictures of these to his girlfriend. After committing the macabre crime, Krishna dumped the body on a hillock in Abdullapurmet.
Both Naveen and Krishna were former classmates. The deceased was pursuing BTech final year at Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda. He was previously in a relationship with a woman, but they broke up. Krishna later got into a relationship with the woman. After he came to know that Naveen had been calling her, Krishna invited him for a get-together at his residence in Dilsukhnagar on February 17. Later in the evening, he offered to drop him off at his hostel at Narketpally in Nalgonda. Instead, Krishna took Naveen to an abandoned spot in Abdullapurmet and killed him.
As Naveen did not return home or to his college hostel even after four days, his father Shankaraiah lodged a complaint with the police at Narketpally on February 22. As the search for Naveen continued, his friends even called Krishna to know his whereabouts. To evade the police, Krishna left for Andhra Pradesh, according to reports, but later surrendered.
“He has admitted to mutilating the body before it on February 17. It was later revealed that the accused allegedly sent pictures of the mutilated body to his girlfriend on WhatsApp,” Hindustan Times quoted Rachakonda Police Commissioner DS Chauhan as saying.
Krishna was booked under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and also under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. He was remanded to 14-day judicial custody and sent to Cherlapally jail.
Parents and relatives of the deceased held a protest alleging indifference by the police in the case. Assuring justice to the family, Chauhan said, “We are trying to get a maximum sentence for the accused because it is a premeditated crime. We are building a strong case with all the evidence. We will get the conviction 100 per cent.”