Hyderabad: A local court in Telangana on Wednesday awarded the death sentence to a man for killing 10 migrant labourers in Warangal. The ghastly mass murders took place on the night of May 20.
First additional district judge of Warangal Ajay Kumar convicted accused Sanjay Kumar Yadav in the mass murder case and ordered him to be hanged till death. Sanjay, himself a migrant from Bihar, was arrested in May on charges of killing 9 other migrants by the district police. The incident at Gorrekunta village under Geesukonda mandal had sent shock waves across Telangana.
The police filed a charge sheet within a month of arresting the accused Sanjay, charging him under 7 different sections, including murder. The court completed the hearing the case and examining the evidence in four months.
The final arguments in the case by the public prosecutor Mokila Satyanarayana were completed on October 22 and the judge had reserved the verdict.
Pronouncing the judgment on Wednesday, the judge said that it was beyond any doubt that the accused had killed 10 people including a three year old boy, and agreed with the public prosecutor that it was a rare case of brutal crime that deserves capital punishment.
While the bodies of 9 victims were found in a well, another woman was killed by the accused in a train by throwing her out.
Police said that Sanjay first killed Rafika, a woman with whom he had developed intimacy, and then killed the others to hide the crime.
According to the police the victims, all migrants, included Maqsood Alam, 50 years, his wife Nisha Alam 45, their wons Shahbaz Alam, 21, Sohial Alam, 20, daughter Bushra Alam 22, and Bushra’s three-year-old son. Other victims were their friends Sriram 35, Shyam 40 and Shakeel 40.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Shyam Sunder, who headed the investigation into the sensational murder case, said that Sanjay had come to Warangal from Bihar six years ago and was working with other migrant labourers at a gunny bag making unit. Over the time he developed intimacy with Rafika, a mother of three children and promised to marry her. Rafika was the neighbour of Maqsood’s family. Gradually Sanjay became more interested in Rafika’s teenaged daughter and decided to eliminate Rafika. He had even assaulted Rafika’s daughter on one occasion.
Promising that he would introduce her to his elders in Bengal to finalise marriage, he persuaded Rafika to travel with him. In the third week of March during the train journey he administered sleeping pills to Rafika and threw her out of the running train. Rafkia’s body was found in Tadepallygudem in East Godavri district, Andhra Pradesh, near the tracks.
When he returned to Warangal alone, Maqsood’s family became suspicious as he could not give any satisfactory reply about Rafika. When Maqsood’s wife threatened to inform the police if he did not tell where Rafika was, Sanjay decided to eliminate the entire family. He executed the brutal plan when the family was celebrating the birthday of a family member in May. He mixed sleeping pills in the food prepared for the occasion. Along with all the family members of Maqsood, three other neighbours also fell unconscious after consuming the food.
In a shocking act Sanjay dragged all the 9 unconscious people to a nearby well and dumped them in it killing all of them in their sleep.
The recovery of such a large number of bodies from the abandoned well caused a public outcry. Within a few days of the grisly crime coming to light, police arrested Sanjay on the basis of the statement of people who had seen him last with the victims.
After the judge announced the death sentence, the police officers who proved the case and the prosecution broke into applause and distributed sweets to celebrate their success in getting the conviction.
