VIZIANAGARAM: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered at Gajalavasala village in Seethanagaram mandal of Vizianagaram district. Though the incident is suspected to have happened Friday night, it came to light Saturday morning when villagers found the girl’s body floating in the village tank
According to Bobbili DSP Soumyalata, the victim was identified as a class X student, a native of Reddayavalasa village in Bobbili mandal. She had not returned home after school on Friday evening, and her parents assumed that she must have gone to her friend’s house.
In the morning, they were told about the body of a teenaged girl floating in a tank at Gajalavalasa. Fearing something wrong, they rushed to the village and found the body to be their daughter’s.
Police said a medical shop owner and two other villagers of Gajalavalasa had seen the girl talking to a person, identified as D Shankar Rao (23), also a native of Reddyavalsa, just 500 m from the village tank. Meanwhile, rumours started spreading that it was a gang-rape and murder.
“We have sent the body for a post-mortem procedure and only after the report comes can we say whether she was raped,” police officials said.
A case has been registered under sections 376, 302, 201 of the Indian Penal Code and Section IV of the Protection of children from Sexual Offences Act. A manhunt has been launched for Shankar Rao, who is at large.