WARANGAL: The Warangal police on Monday cracked the mystery behind the death of nine migrant workers, including a family of six, with the arrest of 24-year-old Sanjay Kumar Yadav, a native of Noorpur village in Bihar. On May 20 and 21, nine bodies of migrant workers from West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura were recovered from an agricultural well at Gorrekunta village in Warangal Rural district.
Speaking to media persons here on Monday, Warangal Police Commissioner V Ravinder said the nine murders were committed to cover up one murder that the accused had committed three months ago. Giving out details of the incident, the Commissioner said Sanjay murdered 37-year-old Rafika, a member of Mohammed Maqsood Alam’s family, by pushing her from a moving train.
Rafika, a divorcee and a native of West Bengal, had been living in Junepak area under Geesugonda mandal with her three children since the past four years. She used to eke out a living by cooking food for the workers in the gunny bag unit where her other family members used to work. It is then that the accused, who used to work in the same unit, started visiting Rafika.
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They began liking each other and even decided to tie the knot. But the accused was seen developing acquaintance with Rafika’s daughter. Noticing this, she questioned Sanjay about his behaviour and gave him an ultimatum to marry her, else she would report him to the police. In a bid to get rid of Rafika, he informed Maqsood that he would take her to her native place to seek her relatives’ permission for the wedding. On May 6, they took the Garib Rath Express to reach West Bengal.
Midway, he made Rafika drink buttermilk laced with sleeping pills. When she fell asleep, he threw her out of the train near Brahmanagudem village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. From there, he alighted the train at Rajahmundry and returned to Warangal, said the CP. He informed the Maqsood family that Rafika decided to stay with her relatives in West Bengal for some time. When they did not hear from her, they started questioning Sanjay about her whereabouts. They even warned him about approaching the police in the issue. Worried over being caught, the accused plotted to murder all the members of the Maqsood family.
On May 20, he attended a birthday party at the gunny bag manufacturing unit where the members of Maqsood family were also present. He mixed sleeping pills in their food and when they all fell asleep, he dragged them one by one to the agricultural well nearby and pushed them in.
The wallet and other items that he had taken from the victims before throwing them in the well were recovered from his house at Janpaka in Gorrekunta.