Nine murders committed to hide one: Telangana police solve shocking case of 9 bodies found in Warangal well

The sensational discovery of nine bodies in a Warangal well turned out to be a grisly case of a migrant worker committing nine murders to hide one crime of murder.

The discovery of four bodies from the family of Mohammed Maqsood Alam on Thursday in a huge, dilapidated well and five more bodies - including those of three migrants - on Friday shocked Telangana last week.

The deaths of migrants during the COVID-19 lockdown and the nationwide migrant crisis led to an initial conclusion that it might be a case of mass suicide.

Maqsood settled in Telangana two decades ago, migrating from West Bengal, while the accused Sanjay Kumar Yadav (24), a migrant worker from Bihar, came to Warangal about six years ago.  

Six of the nine dead are from the Maqsood family – wife Nisha (48), two sons Shabaz (21) and Sohail (18), daughter Bushra (22) and her three-year-old son – who were all living in a gunny bag unit compound at Gorrekunta village, under the Geesukonda police station limits, near Warangal town.

Two others – Sriram (21) and Shyam – are from Bihar and were also working and living in the same compound, while Shakeel (30) is believed to be a family friend of Maqsood, who lives nearby.

After a 72-hour probe by six teams, Dr V Ravinder, Warangal police commissioner, revealed the chilling details of the mass murder allegedly commited by Sanjay.

“Sanjay was living together with Rafiqa (36), who was the daughter of Nisha’s elder sister, in Geesukonda. Rafiqa, who Sanjay had promised to marry, confronted him when she noticed him being close with her teenage daughter. As she warned Sanjay that he would file a police complaint against him, he decided to kill her. On the pretext of talking to their elders back home regarding their wedding, Sanjay took her in on the Garib Rath train to Vizag on March 6,” said Ravinder in a press conference on Monday.

“Sanjay mixed sleeping tablets in buttermilk that Rafiqa consumed and pushed her out of the running train near Nidavadolu in Andhra Pradesh when she was unconscious. After killing her, he returned to Geesukonda. A case was registered by the railway police then.”

“Later, Nisha enquired about Rafiqa and suspecting Sanjay's wrongdoing, threatened to file a police complaint," the commissioner said. "That is when Sanjay decided to kill the Maqsood family. He went on recce at the unit for five days and chose the birthday of Maqsood’s son Shabaz on May 20 to execute his plan. He mixed sleeping tablets in their food and once they were asleep, dragged each of them in a gunny bag to the well and threw them in the water,” The commissioner said that the crime happened between 12:30 am and 5 am.

“For fear that the Bihari youths might reveal his deed, Sanjay killed them also. CCTV footage of Sanjay’s movements formed the crucial evidence in the case. We took him into custody this afternoon. We will file the charge sheet soon and see that the culprit gets the right punishment,” said the commissioner, while terming the murders as most unfortunate.