Six members of a family, including two children, were brutally murdered in their house in Juttada village in the outskirts of Visakhapatnam during the early hours of Thursday. Appalaraju, who lived in the same neighbourhood, allegedly killed three women, a man, a 2-year-old boy and a 6-month old baby girl with a sickle used to cut grass. The accused has been taken into police custody.
Visakhapatnam Assistant Commissioner of Police (West) V Sripad Rao told the media that the murders seemed to have occurred around 6 am on Thursday. The victims were found lying in a pool of blood in a residence in Juttada village of Pendurthi mandal. “The accused Appalaraju is a neighbour of the deceased. There was an ongoing dispute between their families. Because of that issue, he killed six members of the family with a sickle,” ACP Sripad Rao said.
He added that a dispute had occurred between the two families back in 2018, involving a member of the victims’ family, Vijay, and the daughter of the accused. Neighbours and relatives said that a police case had been registered against Vijay in this matter. The murder victims are Vijay’s wife, children, father and aunts, the ACP said. “Since the altercation in 2018, the two families have not been on talking terms. The issue further deteriorated and led to this incident,” he added. Pendurthi police told TNM that Vijay had been booked in 2018 for the rape of Appalaraju’s daughter, and the case is still under trial.
Further details about the motive are yet to be ascertained, police said. Earlier in August, in the Pendurthi police station limits, an elderly man killed his 40-year-old son by repeatedly hitting him on his head with a hammer, following a property related argument. The son was found dead, lying in a pool of blood in the house, at Satyanagar near Chinamushidiwada area. The shocking incident was caught on CCTV camera.