Superintendent of Police Y. Rishant Reddy on Thursday said that the death of a 16-year-old girl in Penumuru mandal, which was reported on September 20, was due to drowning in the well, indicating suicide. The SP categorically dismissed the speculations of murder, rape, and physical torture in the case.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Rishant Reddy said that the case was registered at Penumuru police under Sections 174 Cr. P.C. (suspicious death due to drowning), and it was thoroughly investigated through multiple probe angles.
Giving details of the case, the SP said that after the girl went missing from home on September 17, her parents lodged a complaint with to the Penumuru police station the next day. The police immediately booked a missing case. As part of their investigation, the police questioned friends, classmates, and seniors of the girl, who was studying in Intermediate first year, and also detained a few persons regarding whom the parents had expressed suspicions.
On the night of September 20, the missing girl’s decomposed body was found in an agricultural well near her village. The missing case was altered to 174 Cr. P.C (suspicious death due to drowning) and the investigation was started against the suspects.
The family members and some locals had expressed suspicion that the girl was brutally assaulted, raped, tonsured, hanged and thrown into the well. The next day, a post-mortem was conducted with a special gynaecologist present.
The SP said that the post-mortem report revealed that there were no internal or external injuries on the body of the girl, which was highly decomposed. Later, the swabs, smears, and samples were collected from the body and sent to a forensic lab in Tirupati to ascertain whether the girl was subjected to any sexual violence. The water in the well was emptied and the hair (including braids and rubber band) which had peeled off after the girl’s death was extricated and sent to a forensic lab in Vijayawada for further analysis.
As part of the investigation, the said suspects were interrogated thoroughly. Through technical analysis, the call data, locations, and CCTV footage of the suspects were collected and their movements before and after the disappearance of the girl were verified. “At the time of the girl’s death, the four suspects were found to have been in different places, and none of them was present at the place of the crime and its surroundings,” the SP said.
The forensic reports received by the police suggested that the girl had drowned and died of suffocation, and there were no signs of poisoning. “The suspicion of rape and physical torture were also found to be false. The DNA report said that the hair that belonged to the deceased had peeled off after the decomposition of the body in the water. The reports from Kurnool Medical College also made similar observations,” Mr. Rishant Reddy said. As part of technical analysis, over 1,400 mobile numbers were verified from the tower dump data in the case to ascertain that none was present at the spot. It was also verified that the girl did not go to college from September 14 onwards.
