A woman was found brutally murdered close to Telangana’s Chevella town on Tuesday. The woman’s face was found disfigured, presumably after it was bludgeoned with a boulder.
The body, which was found without any clothes on, was noticed by residents of Tangadipally in the early hours of Tuesday, dumped under a culvert on a road leading to Vikarabad.
A large number of local residents from the village gathered on the road as the police collected evidence from the crime scene after sealing off the area.
Speaking to TNM, Chevella Station House Officer (SHO) Balakrishna said that the woman has not been identified and they had no clue yet about the accused.
“We are taking a petition from the panchayat and we will register a case on that,” he said.
The police officer also said that as per preliminary enquiries, the woman seemed to have been bludgeoned to death with a big rock so as to disfigure her face and make it more difficult to identify her.
Asked if there was sexual assault before the murder, the officer said, “We will get more clarity on that once the post-mortem report is out. We are collecting more clues from the scene of the crime.”
Speaking to reporters at the spot, P Ravinder Reddy, ACP, Chevella Division, said, “We suspect that the murder may have been committed elsewhere and her body may have been dumped here later. Four teams have been formed and further investigation is underway.”
Besides checking CCTV cameras in the area, the police have also notified all police stations in Hyderabad and in the surrounding districts to inform them of missing cases, in an attempt to identify the woman.
The crime brought back memories of the gruesome killing of the 27-year-old veterinarian, who was raped and murdered in November last year in the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The body of the veterinarian, who was given the pseudonym ‘Disha’ by the police to protect her identity, was transported in a lorry to the outskirts of Shadnagar town and dumped in a similar fashion at an underpass.
The crime led to widespread protests and outrage across the country, calling for strict action against the accused. On December 6, the four accused were shot dead in a police encounter as the investigation was ongoing.