Cop’s keen eye helps crack case
THE POLICE moved quickly upon getting a complaint that a five-yearold had gone missing. Though the girl could not be saved, the quick action helped them secure uncontaminated evidence.
COCKSCOMB FLOWERS which were recovered from the clothes of the accused provided vital evidence, said Prasad Rao, then Madhapur ACP, who probed the case.
Some gunugu flowers (cockscomb, Celosia) stuck to clothes played a crucial role in nailing the accused in the rape and murder of a fiveyear-old girl in 2017. The accused was sentenced to death by a court earlier this year.
For his quick action, the investigating officer, N. Shyam Prasad Rao, assistant commissioner of police, Malkajgiri (then with Madhapur), who picked up the clues, was awarded the Union home minister’s medal for excellence in investigation on August 12.
At around 6 o’clock in the evening on December 12, 2017, the Narsingi police of Cyberabad commissionerate received a complaint that a five-year-old girl had gone missing from her house, a makeshift tent at a construction site in Alkapur Colony.
Her parents, construction workers from Odisha, had gone to work, leaving the fiveyear-old and her infant sibling at home. When they returned, the elder child was missing. The police swiftly formed five special teams to rescue the child. One team went up to Langer Houz, 15 km away.
“During investigation, we
came to know from a tea-seller that the girl had come to his shop with one Dinesh Kumar Dharne, neighbour of the victim. Dinesh Kumar had bought chocolates for the girl,” Prasad Rao recalled. Dinesh Kumar had arrived a week ago from Madhya Pradesh, and became the main suspect.
When questioned, Dinesh Kumar tried to mislead the police saying that he had dropped the girl at her house after buying her chocolates. The police were not satisfied with the answers and continued questioning Dinesh Kumar till he confessed to the crime and took the police to the scene of offence.
"It was a heinous crime. The five-year-old girl was violated by the accused and bludgeoned to death,” said Shyam Prasad Rao.
“Cockscomb flowers which were recovered from the clothes of the accused provided vital evidence linking accused to the crime scene," said Prasad Rao. At about 9 pm, police found the body of the girl near the construction site. Using floodlights, they collected the evidence and sent the body for autopsy.
The Clues team collected semen samples on the clothes of the victim, blood stains on the soil near the body and from the cement stone which was used to kill the girl. All these were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory which tied them to the crime. The swift action of the police helped collecting uncontaminated evidence, which helped in securing the conviction of the accused.
“The gap between the offence and the arrest of the accused was very small. If he had the time to take a bath, change his clothes or had gone out of the city, it would have been very difficult to nab him. Further it helped to collect fresh evidence,” Prasad Rao told Deccan Chronicle.
During the trial, Dinesh Kumar got bail and escaped to Madhya Pradesh. This delayed the trial, and gave the Cyberabad police the additional task of nabbing him. He was eventually traced and brought back to the city.
Five years after the crime, on February 8, 2021, judge Suresh Babu of the Metropolitan Sessions Court at LB Nagar, Ranga Reddy district, found Dinesh Kumar guilty of rape and murder and sentenced him to death.
“Our first priority was to rescue the child. We failed. Half success came in the form of the accused being sentenced to capital punishment,” said Prasad Rao.