Mystery shrouds the death of a 16-year-old girl who went missing from her house at Venugopala Puram, a remote hamlet in Penumuru mandal, 25 km from here, nine days ago. The partially decomposed body of the intermediate first-year student was found in a farm well three days later.
According to the police, the girl, who was said to be unwell for a few days, was reported missing from her house on September 17 evening. The family members approached the police the next day after their searches for her at the houses of her friends and relatives yielded no result. The Penumuru police registered a missing complaint and formed a special team to search for the girl.
The residents of Venugopala Puram while proceeding towards a waterbody for the immersion of Ganesh idol on September 20 night found the partially decomposed body of the girl floating in a farm well.
After the girl’s parents identified the body on September 21, the police changed the missing case to ‘suspicious death due to drowning’.
Meanwhile, the incident went viral on social media, with allegations of gang-rape and murder. Incidentally, the girl’s parents named four youths as suspects in the police complaint, alleging that that the youths were known to their daughter.
Some villagers said the head of the body was found partially tonsured, adding that the culprits might have partially tonsured the head of the girl before murdering her.
The Penumuru police said that the body had been sent to the Government Hospital in Chittoor for post-mortem. No external injuries were found on the body and samples collected from the body had been sent to the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in Tirupati to ascertain if the girl was raped, poisoned or subjected to physical torture.
Four suspects picked up
“We are questioning the four suspects, besides verifying call data records and other technical and circumstantial evidence. We will proceed after getting the medical reports,” said a police officer associated with the investigation.
Meanwhile, the case has hogged the limelight as it occurred in Gangadhara Nellore Assembly constituency being represented by Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayanaswamy.
