24-year-old guest worker from Bihar held for Warangal killings

Nine people sedated, thrown into well to cover up murder of a woman

Three days after nine bodies of guest workers from West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura were found in an abandoned well at Gorrekunta of Geesugonda mandal in Warangal Rural district, the Warangal Commissionerate of Police got to the end of the mystery and arrested 24-year-old guest worker from Bihar, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, who allegedly committed the crime.

Sharing details of the incident with the media on Monday, Commissioner of Police V. Ravinder said these nine people were killed to cover up one murder which Sanjay Kumar committed three months ago. On the night of May 20, Sanjay, who was plotting to kill Maqsood’s family, went to the birthday party at their home at the gunny bags manufacturing unit in Gorrekunta. He had with him the sleeping pills he bought two days ago and mixed the tablets in the food being cooked in the kitchen. Nine people who ate the food went into deep sleep.

Sanjay used gunny bags to drag all the nine people to the abandoned well on the premises of another factory next door. “While he had to lift them over the boundary wall, he even chose a location where the wall height was less. The whole process of throwing the sedated people took five hours from 12.30 a.m to 5.30 a.m. He also brought the two guest workers from Bihar, Shyam and Sriram who were sleeping on the terrace to the well by dragging them in the same way.”

He later took away some of the belonging of the dead, including their mobile phones. He also removed the wallet of one of the victims, Shakeel, before throwing him into the well.

“We collected all the scientific and technical evidence against the accused to prove that he committed this crime. Six teams were formed to crack the case and they were successful in doing so in 72 hours. We also have CCTV footage of Sanjay’s movement from his home in Janpaka to the crime scene at the time the crime was allegedly committed . All the evidence and the fact that the accused was close to the deceased family fit in correctly. We will gather more evidence in due course and file a charge-sheet against the accused at the earliest,” Mr. Ravinder said.

Sanjay Kumar Yadav came to Warangal six years ago in search of a job and worked in the same gunny bag manufacturing unit along with Maqsood. He got close to the family and met Rafika (37), a guest worker from West Bengal who stayed alone with her three children. Rafika was the daughter of Maqsood’s sister-in-law.

Sanjay and Rafika started living together after they decided to get married. However, he started misbehaving with her teenage daughter. When Rafika questioned him regarding his actions, he decided to kill her. He convinced her that he would speak to her family members back in West Bengal regarding their wedding and both of them left Warangal by Garib Rath on March 6. He sedated her by mixing sleeping pills with butter milk. In the middle of the night when all passengers were sleeping, he strangled Rafika with her dupatta and threw her body from the train.

Tadepalligudem police who found her body registered a case of suspicious death. Later on, Sanjay got off at Rajahmundry railway station and returned to Warangal. He told Nisha that Rafika stayed back at her home in West Bengal and he returned alone. However, after some days Maqsood’s wife Nisha started questioning him regarding Rafika when she learnt that she did not reach her home in West Bengal. She also threatened him that she would approach the police. To escape arrest by police, Sanjay decided to eliminate the entire family and plotted the murder in Gorrekunta.

Police Commissioner V. Ravinder lauded DCP Venkata Lakshmi, Mamnoor ACP G. Shyam Sunder, inspectors Shiva Ramaiah, Pulala Kishan and others who were part of the investigation.