ONGOLE: In a major breakthrough, Prakasam district police using the latest technology - Papillon Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) - cracked a 13-year-old murder case and arrested the accused.
Disclosing this to mediapersons on Friday, Superintendent of Police B Satya Yesu Babu said that the case which was closed as ‘an undetected murder’ was reopened and solved when fingerprints collected in the crime matched with one of the accused in another criminal case. The accused was taken into custody and questioned, leading to the identification of others involved in the case. One of the three accused in the case died and the remaining two were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Narrating the details of the case, the SP said that on the intervening night of July 21 and 22, 2005, Elchuri Raghu Ramaiah was found murdered in the fields of Gavadagtlavaripalme of S Konda mandal in the district. There were multiple injuries on the body of the victim, found in the back seat of the car, police registered a case and took up the investigation.
The investigation officer collected all evidence including fingerprints from the scene of offense but failed to nail the killers in the case. After two years, that is on July 31, 2007, the case was closed as ‘an undetected murder case’.
After 13 years, during the investigation of another case registered under Jarugumilli police station in 2007, the role of the accused Pulivarthi Seetharamaiah in the undetected murder case was exposed. Police immediately picked up Seetharamaiah and questioned him.
During interrogation, it was revealed that Seetharamaiah along with two others - Chenikala Madhavaiah and Gothula Chandra Sekhar, who were close friends, hitched a ride in the car being driven by E Raghu Ramaiah. The trio, who were addicted to alcohol, decided to rob the car. However, Seetharamaiah claimed that he was afraid and backed away while his friends, Chandra and Madhav executed the plan.
They overpowered the driver and took him into their control. Madhav drove the car and hit a road divider then he drove it off the road into Gavadgatlavaripalle fields. They robbed the driver of `600 cash and, not finding any other valuables, they hit him with stones. He died on the spot. They tried to drive away in the car, but one of its tyres burst.
They fled the spot and the next day met Seetharamaiah and told him what happened. The duo was advised to go into hiding. Later in 2008, one of the accused, G Chandrasekhar died in a road accident at Manetikota of Ulavapadu police limits. During investigation, it was found that Madhavaiah had worked as a home guard from 2009 to 2011, but was removed on disciplinary charges.