KAMAREDDY: Police on Sunday arrested 38-year-old auto driver Ismail Raj Shaik for allegedly throwing his three children into a tank as he was unable to care for them due to mounting debts and financial distress.
According to additional superintendent of police B Chaitanya Reddy, Ismail and his wife Shabeena Begum had approached the Kamareddy police station around 3.30 pm on Saturday, claiming that their three daughters were missing. The children had reportedly left home with their father in his auto around 10 am but did not return.
The complaint triggered a large-scale search operation. SP Rajesh Chandra constituted five teams to trace the children. During questioning, police found discrepancies between Ismail’s statements and the CCTV footage. On further interrogation, he allegedly confessed to throwing the children into the tank around 11 am.
Investigators said the accused was under severe financial stress and had allegedly borrowed around Rs 5 lakh from private lenders. Police suspect pressure from lenders, along with personal issues and bad habits, may have driven him to take the extreme step. Further details are expected to emerge during the investigation.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, two boys — Simhadri (10) and Konda Vijay (9) — who went missing from Kamareddy on March 6 remain untraced.