Warangal rapist’s petty crimes never reported

Hyderabad: The Warangal police, who filed a chargesheet in an unprecedented 21 days’ time, in the kidnap-rape-murder of a nine-month-old baby, found that the rapist had attempted petty crimes in the district earlier, such as extortion but had got away with it because his victims did not report the crimes.

P. Praveen abducted the baby while she was sleeping with her parents on the terrace of their house in Kumarpally in Hanamkonda town, then raped and killed her before dumping the body. The post-mortem report that yielded the horrific details of the crime spurred the Warangal police, the forensics department and even the court staff to expedite the investigation and bring the offender to justice.

He was given the death sentence with the solid evidence against him.     

Additional comm-issioner of police Mr Sridhar, the investigating officer in the case, said the police made this case a top priority in the Warangal Commission-erate.

“The first breakthrough was that the maternal uncle of the victim caught Praveen red-handed when he tried to dispose of the body. The police got custody of Praveen hours after the crime, while the victim's body was sent for post-mortem after the hospital declared her dead. Praveen was sent for a medical examination to learn if he was stable and conscious. Follo-wing standard procedure and timely collection of biological material from the victim, the accused and the scene of the offence, helped the speedy investigation,” ACP Sridhar said.

He said vaginal swabs were collected from the victim and Praveen's blood-stained shirt was sent for DNA profiling. “The report from the TS forensic science laboratory concluded that the bloodstains on the shirt matched the victim's DNA and the semen found in the vaginal swab matched with that of the accused,” he added.

Unlike other cases where the DNA profiling takes a month, the team at TS forensic science laboratory completed the cross-matching in four days on the request of the Warangal Police.

An inspector was deployed in Hyderabad for day-to-day follow up. This helped in the filing of the charge sheet in record time. Inspectors Sampath Rao and Saddiah, Sub-inspectors Praveen Kumar and Srinivasa Reddy, Constables Srinivas and Kiran, court duty officers Shobha and Satish worked round the clock from the time of filing of the First Information Report (FIR), to the panchnama, visiting the scene of offence and cross examination of as many as 51 witnesses.

“For every section of the Indian Penal Code, there is a standard procedure, accordingly, the plan of action is made and the investigation is initiated. Adopting the same, this case was investigated. It is important to file an FIR after the crime is reported,” the investigating officer in the case, said.