Hyderabad rape-murder: Watch the CCTV footage that helped police solve crime

CCTV footage from near a toll plaza where a Hyderabad woman doctor was gang-raped was a crucial lead that helped the police identify the four men who brutalised the woman and later killed her.

HIGHLIGHTS

• CCTV footage shows truck parked near the toll plaza for an entire day
• Cameras captured activity around the truck on the day of the crime
• The footage helped police identify the truck owner and the workers on the truck

Footage from a CCTV camera located near a toll plaza where a woman doctor in her mid-20s was gang-raped and killed last month in Telangana was the most crucial lead that helped the police identify and arrest the four men who allegedly committed the crime. The woman's rape and murder sent shockwaves through the country and the four men alleged to have committed the crime were killed by the police in an "encounter" last week.

India Today TV has accessed the CCTV footage that led the police to the alleged perpetrators of the Telangana rape and murder. The footage is from the Shamshabad toll plaza located on the outskirts of Hyderabad on National Highway 44, along which the charred remains of the woman doctor were discovered on November 28.

The footage (you can watch the clip by tapping on the image above or on the video player below) shows a truck parked near the toll plaza. A few seconds into the video, the truck's headlights turn on (in the video, a mouse cursor highlights the lights turning on). The truck then starts slowly moving, enters a toll lane and leaves the area.

This footage comes at the end of hours-long recording that shows the truck being parked near the toll plaza since November 26. On November 27 -- the night the woman was raped, smothered and set on fire -- the CCTV camera records movement around the truck. Several people are seen entering and leaving the truck's cabin.

It was around this time that the woman -- who was riding a scooter -- parked her two-wheeler near the truck. The four men who allegedly raped and killed her were drinking alcohol inside the truck at the time. The four spotted the woman park her scooter and made a plan to rape her.

According the police, the woman was trapped by the men after one of them punctured her scooter's rear tyre. She was dragged to a nearby compound and gang-raped. The CCTV footage does not record all of this, but it does record the truck leaving the toll plaza. According to the police, the woman was in the truck at that moment in an unconscious state.

THE PETROL PUMP

This CCTV footage was crucial in helping the police indentify and trace the men who allegedly raped and killed the Hyderabad woman. After examining the footage, the police approached the toll plaza and obtained the registration number of the truck seen in the video.

The registration number led to the police the owner of the truck -- Shamshabad resident Srinivas Reddy. Reddy, on being questioned, told the police that the truck was operated by Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu and Mohammed Areef.

Further investigation revealed that after leaving the toll plaza, the four men, including Chintakunta and Areef, went to a petrol pump along the National Highway 44. They wanted to buy petrol in order to burn the woman they had raped.

The first petrol pump the men went to refused to sell them fuel in a bottle like they wanted. Suspicious, a petrol pump attendant even followed the men after they left the bunk for a few minutes. The men then went to another pump where they were able to buy petrol.

An attendant at the second pump would later call the police and help prepare a sketch of one of the four men. By then, the police had identified all the four men -- Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu Chennakeshavulu and Mahammed Areef.

ARRESTED, KILLED

Under immense pressure, the Cyberabad Police, which investigated the Hyderbad rape and murder, claimed to have solved the case a day after the woman's burnt remains were found under a culvert on National Highway 44.

The four men were arrested on November 29 and initially sent to judicial custody. A few days later, a local court sent the four men to police custody. Last Friday night, the police took the four men out of jail with the aim of reconstruction of sequence of events as they happened on November 27-28 when the woman was gang-raped, smothered and set on fire.

As part of the reconstruction, the police took the four men to the culvert where they had allegedly dumped the woman's burnt body. There, according to police, the four men attacked the cops, snatched two of their weapons and attempted to flee.

The police claimed that they were forced to open fire in self-defence, which led to all the four men being killed early Saturday morning. A probe has been ordered into the "encounter".