Hyderabad (Telangana): A 29-year old man was sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in Telangana for rape and murder of two minor girls in Yadadri Bhongir district's Hajipur.
First Additional Sessions Judge in Nalgonda SVV Nath Reddy awarded the capital punishment to Srinivas Reddy under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
He also sentenced the man to life imprisonment in the case related to the rape and murder of a third girl.
The victims were aged 11, 17 and 14 years.
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Police made elaborate arrangements at the court as a large number of people gathered to witness the proceedings.
The accused M Srinivas Reddy was brought to the court amid tight security from a local prison and whisked away after the judgment was delivered.
The three crimes-two in 2019 and one in 2015 at Hajipur village in the Yadadri-Bhongir district, created a sensation as the decomposed body of one victim and skeletal remains of the other two were found in separate abandoned agricultural wells in 2019.
The judgment was hailed by the villagers and kin of the victims who have been demanding death penalty to the accused.
Stressing on the gruesomeness of the crime, the prosecution had sought the death penalty to the accused.
Srinivas Reddy, who was arrested under the POCSO Act on April 30 last year, was lodged in a prison in Nalgonda.
He was arrested after the decomposed body of a girl who went missing in March 2019 was found in a well.
Subsequently, he confessed to killing two more girls earlier after sexually abusing them.
In the first of three crimes, the accused saw his 11- year old victim returning alone to her village and waylaid her in 2015.
He killed her when she resisted his attempt to sexually assault her, a police release said.
He dumped the body in a well.
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In the second incident, the accused offered a lift to his second victim, a 17-year old girl, in March last year when she was going by walk from Hajipur to nearby Bommalaramaram village and took her to his agricultural well.
He sexually assaulted her though she was unconscious after being attacked by him and later dumped her inside the well.
He buried her in the well after noticing that she died.
In the third case, on April 25 last year, the accused took the 14-year old victim on the pretext of giving a lift to the agricultural well.
He sexually assaulted her when she fell unconscious after being attacked by him.
He strangulated her to death with her scarf and buried the body in the same well along with her clothes to conceal the evidence.
Though there was no direct evidence of eyewitness, police collected "perfect" scientific, medical and technical evidence to prove the guilt of the accused, the police release said.
Apart from the above cases, the accused Reddy, a lift mechanic, was involved in a similar rape and murder case at Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh in 2016 and another case of misbehaviour with a woman with a sexual motive at Bommalaramaram near his village in 2015.
The death sentence awarded by the Nalgonda court should be executed subject to confirmation by the High Court as provided under Section 366 Cr.P.C, the police release said.
The death penalty to Reddy came close on the heels of the capital punishment being awarded to three men on January 30 for raping and murdering a Dalit woman in KB-Asifabad district.
PTI report
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