CHITTOOR/TIRUPATI:In a shocking incident, unidentified miscreants brutally raped and murdered a 19-year tribal girl near Kalavakunta panchayat in Penumur mandal of the district Saturday evening, the eve of International Women’s Day.
The police said that the victim, a native of Diguva Punepalli village in Kalavakunta panchayat, had lost her father and was staying with her mother. She was abducted by a group of miscreants near the Neeva River when she was rearing goats Saturday.
After taking the girl to an isolated location, the miscreants gang-raped her and strangled her to death before fleeing from the spot.
Some of the locals, who went to the place for attending to nature’s call, found the body lying in bushes and alerted the villagers, who in turn informed the Penumur police. The cops rushed to the spot and sent the body to Chittoor Government Hospital for post-mortem. Chittoor district superintendent of police G Srinivas, who visited the spot, said that special teams have been formed for nabbing those involved in the heinous crime.
Stating that sniffer dogs’ team was also pressed into service, he added that the dogs went up to the borders of Tamil Nadu and stopped there.
Meanwhile, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who landed at Renigunta Airport to change into a chopper to leave for Nellore for participating in the International Women’s Day celebrations on Sunday, expressed grief over the incident and announced a financial aid worth `5 lakh to the family members of the victim.
Collector Siddharth Jain, who took the issue to the notice of chief minister, told mediamen that `5 lakh will be given to the victim’s family from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.