Deccan Chronicle

Serial killer strikes again after murdering 16 women Took to crime after wife, lover eloped

- NAVEEN KUMAR I DC DC CORRESPOND­ENT

A serial killer who robbed and murdered 18 women in the past two decades has been arrested by the North Zone Task Force on Tuesday. He had been given life sentence by a court after he was found guilty of 16 murders and thefts and killed two more while he was out on bail in the last few months, police said.

Forty-year-old Maina Ramulu, a stone-cutter, was caught by police during investigat­ion into a woman ‘missing’ case under Mulugu police station limits. The Siddipet and Ghatkesar police of Rachakonda effected the arrest, said Hyderabad police commission­er Anjani Kumar.

Police said he had been arrested several times in the past in connection with 21 cases, including 16 of murder and robbery, four property offences and one case of escaping from custody while being admitted at a mental institutio­n.

Police said he was a life convict and on bail following an appeal he made to the high court.

The arrest was made after a complaint came to the Jubilee Hills police that resident Kavala Venkatamma 50, was missing. Her body was found near the railway track of Ankushapur village in Ghatkesar after a week of her disappeara­nce.

To detect the case, the North Zone Task Force team along with Ghatkesar Police verified approximat­ely 500 CCTV footages from the Yousufguda toddy shop compound to the Ankushapur railway track. The cops verified the modus operandi of the accused and identified the culprit as Ramulu.

“As he was a habitual

Maina Ramulu’s wife eloped with her lover a short while after marriage. Ramulu was aged 21 and deeply upset. He bore a grudge and started targeting married women. He would engage them in an affair with him. He ended up as a serial killer.

“The men who are married to these women will also suffer like I did. I wanted to avoid that and spare the men that pain by killing the women who came with me,” Mania told the cops during questionin­g.

“His modus operandi is to approach married women in toddy compounds, usually aged between 35-45, and get them drunk before convincing them to come out with him to have sex. After

offender with a criminal history, he was detained for questionin­g. He confessed to have killed the missing woman and also another woman. The second woman is yet to be identified.” taking them to a secluded area, he would strangle them and burn their faces by pouring alcohol so that identifica­tion would be difficult,” said the cops.

He started the murders in 2003 and was sentenced to life imprisonme­nt by the IVth additional district and sessions judge in

2011. This, after he was arrested by the Narsingi police. He was also slapped with a fine of

`500. In the same year, he was admitted to Erragadda mental hospital for treatment and analysis.

He escaped from there with five other inmates and was caught by the cops in 2013. By then he had already murdered five more women. His latest two killings were done after he was released on bail in July 2020, police said.

The man confessed that he took the woman with him after they met at a toddy outlet to a secluded place, strangled her to death and fled with her valuables, said the commission­er.

 ?? — By arrangemen­t ?? Hyderabad police commission­er Anjani Kumar addresses a press conference on the arrest of a serial killer, in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
— By arrangemen­t Hyderabad police commission­er Anjani Kumar addresses a press conference on the arrest of a serial killer, in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

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