A day after bodies of two girls who were allegedly raped and murdered were recovered from a Telangana village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, police on Tuesday began search for the skeletal remains of a third girl also suspected to have been raped and murdered by the same man.
Following violent protests by locals of Hajipur, the police was forced to launch a fresh probe into all the cases of missing girls from nearby villages.
Hajipur village was rocked by the sensational revelations and suspect that 27-year-old Srinivas Reddy, who is presently in police custody, has been involved in a series of such offences over last four years.
The police too, suspect that Srinivas Reddy, allegedly raped and killed at least three girls and dumped the bodies of two of them in a dry abandoned well on a land owned by him near the village.
The gruesome details came to light during the investigations into the rape and murder of a Class 10 student. The 14-year-old victim from Hajipur had gone missing while returning home from her school in Keesara on April 25. The next day police found her bag near the well and her body was found inside the well.
A day later when officials descended into the well as part of their investigation to collect some forensic evidence, the police found skeletal remains of another girl. Investigations revealed that the skeletal remains were of an 18-year-old, who had gone missing in April.
The accused allegedly raped and killed her and later dumped her body in the well. As the news spread, family of a 11-year-old, who was missing since 2015, approached the police.
The girl from Mysireddypally village had gone missing from Hajipur where she had gone to meet her aunt.
Following Reddy's interrogation, the police then launched a search for a third victim's skeletal remains in another abandoned well in the same area.
Angry villagers on Tuesday attacked and set ablaze Srinivas Reddy's house. His family members had already fled from the village. As tension mounted with the protests demanding stringent punishment to the accused, additional police forces were rushed to the village.
Collector Anita Ramchandran also visited the village and took stock of the situation.
The preliminary investigations also revealed that the accused, a lift mechanic, was also involved in the murder of a woman in Kurnool town of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in 2016.
According to the police, after killing the woman he had dumped her body in an overhead water tank adjacent to a penthouse, where he was residing on rent.
IANS inputs