Telangana Minister calls for encounter of man accused of rape and murder of six year old in Hyderabad

Telangana Labour Minister Malla Reddy.

Malla Reddy, Telangana’s Labour Minister, said on September 14 that the accused-suspect in the horrific rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Hyderabad’s Saidabad locality would “be killed in an encounter”. The Minister made the sensational and controversial comment on the sidelines of an event in Hyderabad: “We will definitely arrest him and will do the encounter (sic).”

The Saidabad locality and its surrounding areas have seen a number of protests after the child’s rape and murder, which happened on September 9. The protesters, including family members of the girl, have accused the police of inaction.

The child, who belonged to a Lambada family which migrated from Telangana’s Nalgonda district, was raped and strangled allegedly by her 27-year old neighbour who apparently befriended the six year old, luring her with chocolates, before committing the crime in his house. The child had gone missing in the evening and her body was found after midnight in the perpetrator’s house.

The Hyderabad City Police have registered a murder and rape case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Initially, police sources indicated that the accused, who is from a village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, had been arrested. But later, the police said they have formed 15 special teams in an effort to nab the accused.

Malla Reddy’s utterance came a day after the autopsy conducted at the government-run Osmania Hospital confirmed that the child was sexually assaulted and strangulated to death. Interestingly, many of the protesters and Revanth Reddy, Telangana State Congress president, have also made the demand that the accused be killed in an encounter.

The Minister’s comments brings to mind the gunning down by the Hyderabad police in December 2019 of the four accused in the rape and murder of a 26-year-old Hyderabadi veterinary doctor. The doctor was raped and murdered by the four accused on the outskirts of Hyderabad and were shot in an encounter that took place under a bridge on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad national highway near Chattanpalli village at Shadnagar, the very place where they had committed the crime on the night of November 27.