Woman’s body found in A.P. linked to Gorrekunta deaths in TS

Confession of accused led to identification of victim, says GRP SP

The body of a woman found in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh two and a half months ago turned out to be the vital link in the recent gruesome Gorrekunta deaths in Warangal district of Telangana.

The body, now identified as that of 32-year-old Rafeeqa, was recovered from the tracks near Nidadavole on March 8 by the Government Railway Police (GRP).

The Geesukonda police retrieved nine bodies from a well near Gorrekunta a couple of days ago. On Monday, police arrested Sanjay Kumar Yadav, a migrant from Bihar, in connection with the deaths. Based on his confession, the Warangal police contacted the railway police in A.P. and received the details of the case which helped them establish the identity of the woman.

During interrogation, Sanjay Kumar reportedly confessed that he along with Rafeeqa of West Bengal, with whom he had a relationship, boarded a train in Warangal. He sedated and killed her on the train and later threw the body from the running train near Nidadavole. In order to suppress the murder, he killed nine others – her family members and neighbours – after sedating them and dumped the bodies in the well on May 20 night.

FSL report awaited

Superintendent of Railway Police, Vijayawada, K. Narayana Naik said the police recovered an unidentified woman’s body near the tracks. The Tadepalligudem GRP had registered a case under Section 174 CrPc (suspicious death) and took up investigation.

“As there was no missing complaint, we conducted postmortem on the body and sent the viscera samples to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL). The report is awaited,” the SP said.

During autopsy, an injury on the throat and some minor injuries on the body were found. “We have uploaded the details and photos in unknown dead body portal, but there was no response,” Mr. Naik added.

Case to be altered

GRP Lines circle inspector K. Madhusudhan Reddy, who visited the spot, said the body was found near the tracks with a ‘chunni’coiled around the neck.

“Based on the confession of Sanjay Kumar, we will alter the case to Section 302 (murder) and take the accused into custody on PT Warrant,” Mr. Reddy said.

“On the same day (March 8th), we checked the Delhi, Mumbai and Assam-bound trains and enquired with the passengers, but could not get any clues. The Warangal police spoke with us, took details of Rafeeqa’s death and confirmed that the murder is related to the nine deaths in Gorrekunta village,” the CI said.