Man gets capital punishment for killing 9 migrant labourers

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, October 28

The District Courts in Warangal on Wednesday sentenced a 24-year-old man, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, to death for the killing of nine persons in what has come to be known as sensational Gorrekunta mass murder case.

In May this year nine people, all migrant labourers were first drugged and then their bodies dumped in a well making people believe that the family had committed suicide out of hardship arising out lockdown due to COVID-19.

The nine killed included a three-year-old child. The quick trial and sentencing came within five months by the Additional District Sessions Judge in Warangal K Jayakumar. Yadav has been given an option to move the High Court against the capital punishment given to him.

The judge said the prosecution succeeded in proving the guilt of the accused for under sections 449, 328, 380, 404 and 302 of the IPC.

During the trial, the police established that all nine victims were rendered unconscious after being made to eat food laced with sedatives and then dumped into the well in Gorrekunta village of Geesukonda Mandal on May 21.

After the incident was reported by the owner of a closed factory where the nine victims lived, the police found four bodies of one Mohammad Maqsood’s family on May 21, the other five bodies – that of Maqsood, two Bihari youths and one Mohammad Shakeel were found on the next day.

A 475-page charge sheet was filed on July 28 and the court examined 67 witnesses in the case and the trial was completed in 36 days of the charge sheet being filed.

According to the charge sheet Sanjay was in relationship with Rafiqa (37), a niece of Maqsood’s wife Nisha who was separated from her husband. When the lady started prevailing upon Sanjay to marry her, Sanjay accompanied her on a train on March 6 and on the way throttled her to death. He dumped her body near Nidubrolu in Tadepally railway station limits of West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.

After Sanjay returned Rafiqa’s relatives asked him about her whereabouts. To cover up one murder he killed the entire family to erase evidence and make it look like a mass suicide.