KAKINADA: Two days after the abduction of six-year-old Surada Deepthi Sri Ishani from her school at Pastorpeta on the outskirts of Kakinada, the police on Sunday launched a massive search in the local Upputeru (canal) after her stepmother reportedly confessed to the investigators that she killed the girl and dumped the body in the water.
Police engaged the services of Kakinada-based Dharmadi Satyam, who had recently retrieved the capsized Royal Vashista boat from river Godavari.
Deepthi was abducted by a woman from her school on Friday between 1 pm and 1.30 pm and her father lodged a complaint late in the night after his efforts in finding her proved futile.
Investigating into the case with the help of CCTV footage and also after inquiring with the inmates of an old age home near the school, police came to the conclusion that a woman wearing a scarf took away the girl.
The woman was found running with the girl in some of the CCTV recordings and later left on a bike driven by a man.
Deepthi’s mother passed away three years back due to illness and her father Syam Kumar married Santhi Kumari.
According to family members, Santhi Kumari used to ill-treat Deepthi following which Syam Kumar sent the girl to his parents’ house at Pagadalapeta.
According to police, Syam was giving some money to his parents for maintenance of Deepthi and Santhi
Kumari was opposed to it. This led to disputes between the couple.
“Santhi Kumari developed a grudge against Deepthi and is said to have discussed her plans with some of her close relatives to eliminate the girl and executed the plan,’’ police said.
They, however, said the woman gave contradictory statements about the fate of the girl.
On one hand, she claimed she killed the girl and threw the body into the canal, on the other, she told police that she left Deepthi at a dump yard.
Police simultaneously launched a search for the girl at the residences of the woman and other places.
Meanwhile, eight police teams took up a massive search operation in the canal near Jagannayakpur and, by afternoon as they found it difficult to trace the body, they roped in the services of Dharmadi Satyam.
Eight members of Dharmadi Satyam team joined the search but call off the operations after dusk.
The teams searched for the girl’s body in the canal up to the Indrapalem bridge downstream of the canal. Kakinada DSP V Bheema Rao said the search would resume on Monday morning.