Title - Railway tracks turn murder spots

Bodies dumped on tracks to mislead investigators

Railway tracks are fast turning perfect murder spots for criminals to eliminate their rivals, going by the spate of murders reported along the tracks on the city suburbs.Seeking to mislead investigators that the victims had either committed suicide or was run over by a train, the criminals dump bodies on the tracks. However, their modus operandi has not been entirely successful, with police managing to trace out those responsible for the deaths in most cases. As many as 10 persons, including a woman, were nabbed for killing their respective rivals in separate incidents and for later dumping the bodies on the tracks to make it appear as suicide, railway police officials disclosed.In a recent case at Alampally village within the Vikarabad railway police station limits, two persons – K. Bandaiah and M. Raju – murdered their 23-year-old friend Raju following a mobile phone theft.The duo took the victim to a secluded place abutting the tracks between Vikarabad and Sadashivpet railway stations to have liquor. The accused later attacked Raju with knives. Believing that Raju had died, they dragged him onto the tracks to make it look as if he was hit by train.

A few minutes later, the accused noticed that the victim was alive. They poured petrol on Raju and set him on fire before fleeing the spot. Raju died later.

In another incident near Malkajgiri railway station, the railway police cracked the murder of Syed Pasha (30) after examining blood stains found on the platform and tracks. The prime accused, Balanna (30) of Mallikarjuna Nagar, and his associate Mallesh (32) from Mahbubnagar killed Pasha by smashing his head with a boulder near the platform before dumping the body on the tracks.

Inputs from nearby residents helped police nab the accused. “With the evidence collected from the spot, we are first identifying the victims and later zeroing in on culprits,” Secunderabad Railway Superintendent of Police M. Kantha Rao said.

The Secunderabad Railway Police had registered 231 cases along the tracks up to May 31, 2013 as suspicious deaths, while 453 were registered in 2012 and 469 in 2011.