To cover-up one murder, man kills nine more people with sleeping pills as his 'weapon'

Police has arrested a 26-year-old man accused of killing 10 people.

The police in Warangal district of Telangana on Monday arrested a man accused of killing 10 people, three days after nine bodies were found in an abandoned well in the area.

The accused has been identified as 26-year-old Sanjay Kumar Yadav, who originally hails from Bihar and was living in Warangal for six years.

Claiming to have solved the case, the police said that Yadav was in a live-in relationship with a woman which went sour following which, he killed the woman by throwing her out of a running train.

To cover up the murder, Yadav committed nine more murders. The victims were identified as his live-in partner Rafiqa (37), Mohd Maqsood Alam (47), Alam's wife Md Nisha Alam (40), Md Bushra Khatoon (20) Bushra's three-year-old son, Mohd Shahbaz Alam (19), Mohd Mashel (18) both sons of deceased Mohd Maqsood. Police also recovered bodies of Shyam Kumar, Sriram Kumar and Md Shakeel.

The matter came to light on May 21 after the owner of a gunny bags stitching unit in Gorrekunta village in Warangal lodged a complaint with the police that a family which used to work and reside in his godown along with some others are missing from their rooms without any trace.

Investigating the matter, the police started searching the premises during which, an abandoned well drew its attention wherein some bloated gunny bags were seen in the water. On pulling out the bags, bodies of Mohd Maqsood Alam, his wife Nisha, his daughter Bushra and her three-year-old son were found in them.

The next day, five more bodies were found from the well after the water was pumped out by the police. These five victims were Mohd Shahbaz Alam and Mohd Mashel, both sons of Maqsood. Along with these two bodies, the police recovered the bodies of Shyam Kumar, Sriram Kumar ( both hailing from Bihar ) along with Md.Shakeel, another worker in the gunny bags godown.

Many years back Mohd Maqsood reportedly came along with his family from West Bengal for livelihood and setting in Warangal.

Within 72 hours, the police arrested accused Sanjay Kumar Yadav today afternoon.

According to Warangal police commissioner Dr. V.Ravinder, Sanjay Kumar Yadav came to Warangal some six years back for livelihood and befriended Maqsood Alam. Few years back, Nisha's (Maqsood's wife) niece Rafiqa, came to her with her three children after her husband deserted her in West Bengal.

Soon, Sanjay became close to Rafiqa and they apparently were in live-in relationship for the last few years. However, as Rafiqa started pestering Sanjay to get married, he hatched a plan and told her that both of them will go to West Bengal to talk to Rafiqa's elders.

Accordingly, on March 7, both of them boarded Garib Rath train from Warangal towards Visakhapatnam. "After dinner, Sanjay gave Rafiqa buttermilk laced with sleeping pills powder. As she fell asleep, at around 3 am, he dragged Rafiqa towards the bogie door and pushed her from running train. After reaching Rajahmundry, Sanjay came back to Warangal and acted normal.

The local Railway police in Nidadavolu near Rajahmundry found the body of Rafiqa registered it as a suspected murder case because of strangulation marks from scarf tied around her neck.

Later, Rafiqa's aunt Nisha started questioning Sanjay about her whereabouts to which he said she has gone to her relatives' place, assuring her that he was taking care of Rafiqa's three children.

However, as there was no news of Rafiqa, Nisha threatened Sanjay with a police complaint. On May 20, Sanjay decided to kill Maqsood and his family and joined the family who was celebrating the birthday of Maqsood and Nisha's son Shahbaz.

"The culprit Sanjay joined the unsuspecting family stating he too has come to celebrate birthday. Somewhere in during the celebration he mixed powdered sleeping pills in the food of the family which everyone except him consumed. One of Maqsood's relative Shakeel who was also with the family consumed the food. Also, as he was acquinted with two other Biharis- Sriram Kumar and Shyam Kumar, who were staying in the other side of the godown - he laced their food also to leave no trace of murders," said the police commissioner.

When everyone fell asleep, one by one he put all the bodies in a gunny bag, dragged it to a nearby well and threw them in, the commissoner added.

The police is now searching for the medical shop in Warangal that gave huge quantity of sleeping pills to the accused.