In an attempt to hide the murder of a woman, a man from Bihar reportedly killed nine more people in Telangana’s Warangal district last week.
According to the reports, the Warangal police had recovered nine bodies from an open well at Gorrekunta village near Warangal town on May 21 and 22. All the nine persons, including six members of one family, were killed by mixing sleeping pills in their food and the accused had thrown them one by one into a nearby well.
However, the police successfully solved the murder case after they arrested 24-year-old Sanjay Kumar Yadav, who confessed to having murdered the family of six and three others to cover up the murder of a woman named Rafiqa with whom he had a live-in relationship.
The deceased are identified as Mohammad Maqsood (55), his wife Nisha (48), sons Shahabad Alam (21) and Sohail Alam (18), daughter Bushra (20) and her three years old son Shoaib – all from the same family from West Bengal. Three other migrant workers have been also killed by the accused to hide the murder of the woman. The three are identified as Sriram (21) and Shyam (22) from Bihar, besides Shakil (30) from Tripura.
Revealing the murder details, Warangal Police Commissioner V Ravinder said that all the nine were killed after sedating them by lacing their food with sleeping pills. As they fell unconscious, the accused put each person in a gunny bag, dragged them one by one and threw them into a well. Another migrant from Tripura, who was also present in the building, was also murdered.
The accused killed nine people to cover-up the murder of Rafiqa
Sanjay Yadav, who was working at the gunny bag factory, had reportedly developed a relationship with a 37-year-old Rafiqa, who had come from West Bengal with three children after separating from her husband. She was also employed in the same factory. Maqsood Alam, and his wife Nisha, who is Rafiqa’s sister, were also working in the gunny bag manufacturing unit for the last 20 years.
Yadav had taken a room on rent and was living with Rafiqa. Reportedly, Yadav and Rafiqa had a fight recently after the accused had tried to sexually exploit the teenage daughter of Rafiqa.
The accused devised a plot to murder Rafiqa and informed Maqsood’s family that he was taking her to West Bengal to talk to her elders for marriage. The duo boarded the Garib Rath train to Visakhapatnam on March 6, where he bought butter milk and mixed sleeping pills, served it to Rafiqa.
As she fell asleep, he strangled her to death and threw the dead body from the train near Nidadavole in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.
Yadav later got down from the train at Rajahmundry and returned to Warangal. When Maqsood enquired about Rafiqa, Yadav said that he left her at her village and would come back later. He then convinced Rafiqa’s three children that their mother had stayed back.
The suspicion grew for Maqsood and his wife Nisha, who started questioning Sanjay on Rafiqa’s whereabouts. Maqsood even called West Bengal to found that Rafiqa had never reached her relatives’ house. As they started threatening Sanjay saying they would approach the police, he hatched a plan to eliminate all of them.
Killed a family of 6 and 3 others to cover up Rafiqa’s murder
On May 20, Sanjay visited the jute mill with 50-60 sleeping pills. The accused went to Maqsood’s house in the evening and mixed sleeping pills in the food prepared at their home on the occasion of Maqsood’s son’s birthday.
The two workers from Bihar, Shyam and Sriram, were also present at the time. He then went to the first floor and laced the food of the migrants too. The third worker, Shakeel, had eaten with Maqsood’s family that day.
As everyone fell unconscious at around the midnight, Sanjay Yadav then put each person in a sack and dumped them in the well.
The police commissioner said the CCTV footage of the accused leaving his house on the evening of May 20 and returning the next morning provided the vital clue to the investigating team.
Based on the CCTV evidence, the police were able to track Yadav and arrest him. “During interrogation, he confessed to committing the crime,” the commissioner said.
Meanwhile, Rafiqa’s three children have been sent to a juvenile welfare home till they can be sent back to their relatives in West Bengal. The police are now investigating how could Sanjay get 50-60 sleeping pills from a pharmacy in Hanamkonda, Warangal.
