A man who was accused of the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl was lynched to death by a vigilante mob here, according to eyewitness accounts. However, police said the man died after he jumped off a railway overbridge to flee.
Ganiganti Suresh (35) had been on the loose ever since fellow villagers of Madepalli in Eluru Rural mandal discovered the naked body of minor girl in a trunk at his house. On Friday, the West Godavari police said they spotted Suresh at the old bus stand and gave a chase. Fleeing, he jumped off the bridge on to the railway tracks and died.
However, eyewitnesses gave a different account of the sequence of events. They said the man was indeed hiding at the old bus stand. When he saw the people of Madepalli and a police posse, he tried to escape by jumping off the bridge.
He fell on the railway tracks and was badly injured. The policemen reached him first and put him in a jeep to take him to the government hospital. The mob caught up with the jeep, dragged Suresh out and beat him to death.
Suresh, allegedly a habitual offender with several cases, including of rape, against him, was the son of a kirana shop owner and lived opposite the house of the minor girl. On the afternoon of June 17, the little girl was sent to the shop by her mother to buy some eggs. When she had not return till evening, her parents, Tiyyala Ramesh and Anupama, lodged a complaint with the police.
The next day, villagers, suspicious of Suresh's behaviour, attacked him in front of the shop. He got himself admitted to hospital and called the police from his bed and asked them to book an assault case against the people who had attacked him.
On Thursday evening, villagers barged into the house of the accused and found the minor's naked body hidden in a trunk box in Suresh’s room. Demanding to know the whereabouts of Suresh, they ransacked his father’s shop and house.
Policemen led by Eluru Rural DSP K.V.G. Sarita rushed to the spot and tried to shift the minor's body to hospital. However, the villagers were in an incensed mood and staged a road blockade on Thursday night, continuing into Friday.
