The Hyderabad police on Tuesday said that they had arrested a serial killer who was targeting women after his wife eloped with another person. The man identified as Maina Ramulu is accused of allegedly murdering 18 women over the course of 24 years. Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar on Tuesday announced the arrest of Maina Ramulu, a labourer, for killing two women. A resident of Borabanda in Hyderabad, Ramulu was arrested in a joint operation by Hyderabad and Rachakonda police while investigating the cases of two missing women.
Police found that the 45-year-old was earlier involved in 16 murders and has a total of 21 cases, including those of theft registered against him. He had escaped from the Erragadda Mental Hospital prison section in 2011 while undergoing life imprisonment in one of the cases. The accused had been targeting women found near toddy compounds after trapping them by offering money for sex. He used to murder them and snatch valuables found on them, the police said.
On January 1, one Kavala Anathaiah lodged a complaint with Jubilee Hills police station that his wife Kavala Venkatamma, a labourer, went missing on December 30.
The Task Force, North Zone team, Hyderabad city started working to trace the missing woman. On January 4, the dead body of Venkatamma was found near a railway track at Ankushapur village, in the limits of Ghatkesar police station.
During the investigation, including with the help of CCTV footage, police found that Venkatamma had boarded an auto-rickshaw with the accused at a toddy shop in Yousufguda under the Jubilee Hills police station limits. The accused took her to an isolated area at Ankushapur village.
After consuming liquor, he killed her with a boulder and fled with her valuables. Police said that the woman’s face was burnt using her own clothes. The body was identified to be that of Venkatamma using her cell phone that was recovered with her body.
The police also said that Ramulu had allegedly murdered an unidentified woman aged between 35 and 40 years on December 10 after trapping her at Bala Nagar toddy compound under Cyberabad police commissionerate.
He took her to an isolated area in the limits of Japtha Singyapally village in Siddipet district and strangulated her with her saree before fleeing with her silver jewellery.
According to police, Ramulu hails from Sanga Reddy district. When he was 21-years old, his parents performed marriage with a woman, who later eloped with another person. "Since then he bore a grudge against women and committed serial killings of women," the police commissioner said.
According to the police, he earlier committed 16 murders between 2003 and 2019. In a murder case in 2009, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. While undergoing the sentence he escaped with five others from Erragadda mental hospital on December 12, 2011. After the escape, he committed five more murders. He was re-arrested in 2013 but was released after securing bail from the High Court in 2018.
The police chief said the accused did not change his attitude and committed two more murders.