Saladi Lakshminarayana renders ‘harikathas’ with devotion and moves from one place to another performing street plays.
He used to visit the homes of women devotees to perform special pujas. In the process, Lakshminarayana trapped women, took them to Pichukalanka in East Godavari, robbed their gold jewellery and killed after sexually exploiting them.
The accused had committed five such offences in the last five years. He dumped the bodies in the island, which ended as cases of ‘woman missing’ not traced since 2012.
Finally, the Razole police arrested the ‘self-styled holy man’ who was cooling his heels in the Rajahmundry Central Jail.
A native of Kedarilanka village of Kapileswarapuram mandal in East Godavari, Lakshminarayana is an expert in ‘harikatha telling’ and is a member of a team which gives performances in villages in East and West Godavari districts.
“In the twin Godavari districts, people engage ‘burrakathas’ and ‘harikathas’ during social functions. The accused took advantage of the art to trap women,” said Amalapuram Dy. SP L. Ankaiah who monitored the investigation.
In December 2016, the team rendered Harikatha in Nagaram village and the accused developed intimacy with a woman. He visited her house frequently and developed an extramarital affair with her.
On January 8, 2017, he asked her to come to Kothapeta, from where he took her to Pichukalanka, sexually exploited and strangled her to death. He collected her gold jewellery and and dumped the body in a pit.
Suspicion
Following a complaint, the Nagaram police registered a ‘woman missing’ case and Circle Inspector K. Christopher took up the investigation. The complainant expressed doubt on Lakshminarayana who visited his house.
“During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused had criminal history earlier. He was involved in three thefts under the Amalapuram Town, Atreyapuram and Kothapeta police stations’ limits, and a suspect sheet was opened against him under the Angara police station in East Godavari district,” Mr. Christopher told The Hindu .
He killed two women in May and December 2012 in the same manner. Two more were killed in 2013 and 2015.
Sections altered
“All the ‘woman missing’ cases were altered to Sections 302 (Murder), 201 (Causing disappearing of evidence) and 379 (Punishment for theft) of IPC and the accused was produced in courts on Prisoner Transit (PT) warrant. Mr. Christopher investigated the cases on the basis of CCTV footage, call data recordings and oral witnesses in a systematic manner and detected five cases,” said N. Sambasiva Rao, DGP.
The case had been selected for the ‘Award for Best Crime Detection (ABCD)’ prize and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu would present it soon, the DGP said.
