A notorious offender, who killed seven women, held in Tandur

 Hyderabad: A 55-year-old man, jailed for the murder of a woman and released on bail recently, allegedly killed another woman, and stole her cash and silver ornaments. Tandur police on Friday arrested Mala Kistappa, a resident of Alipur village of Rangareddy district.

Kistappa was accused of the murder of five other women but was acquitted with the reported police failure to provide adequate evidence to the court to support the charges.

His latest victim, Swarabi, 42, resident of Shanta Mahal in Tandur and a native of Karnataka, was a daily-wage labourer. On November 29, she was waiting for a job in Tandur, when Kistappa hired her on pretext of providing some work. He took Swarabi to a forest in Zaheerabad, killed her and stole silver ornaments and Rs 1,000 from the victim.

When she did not return, her husband Mohammed lodged a complaint with the Tandur police who booked a case and took up investigation. Upon verifying CCTV footage, police spotted Kistappa talking to Swarabi, and arrested him. Kistappa reportedly confessed to the murder and theft.

Police said that was Kistappa’s method of operation and accused him of similarly killing and robbing six other women, three in Vikarabad, and one each Yalal, Dharur and Tandur.

However, Kistappa was acquitted in five cases by the Vikarabad court. In another case, Kistappa was in jail for two years. His family recently applied for bail and he was released.