A 60-year-old man was lynched by angry villagers on the suspicion of killing a 42-year-old woman when she resisted his attempt to rape her in Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district on Sunday night, the police said.
The incident happened at Kamepalli village of Jarugumilli block at around 8.30 pm. The deceased man was identified as Vallepu Obaiah, a quack, who had been treating people for various ailments with country-made medicines, the police said.
According to Singarayakonda police inspector M Lakshman, the woman, an agriculture labourer, had been taking treatment from Obaiah for the last few days for her knee joint pains. On Sunday, too, she had gone to his clinic at around 7 pm.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that Obaiah, who was in an inebriated condition, attempted to rape the woman. When she resisted his attempts, he tied her limbs with ropes and hacked her to death with an axe,” Lakshman said.
Though the neighbours had heard the woman’s cries, they thought it was all part of the treatment being given by the quack. However, an hour later, when a neighbour noticed Obaiah coming out of the house in a disturbed state of mind, she alerted her brother who in turn informed the police.
“Immediately, Jarugumilli sub-inspector Razia Sultana went to the village along with a couple of constables and took Obaiah into custody. By then, the agitated villagers, who came to know about the alleged rape attempt and murder of the woman, started beating up Obaiah with sticks and iron rods,” the police inspector said.
{{/usCountry}}“Immediately, Jarugumilli sub-inspector Razia Sultana went to the village along with a couple of constables and took Obaiah into custody. By then, the agitated villagers, who came to know about the alleged rape attempt and murder of the woman, started beating up Obaiah with sticks and iron rods,” the police inspector said.
{{/usCountry}}The villagers even assaulted the cops when they tried to stop them from beating Obaiah. By the time additional police forces from Singarayakonda rushed to the village, following an alert from the sub-inspector, Obaiah was beaten to death by the agitated villagers.
Apart from Singarayakonda police, Ongole deputy superintendent of police U Nagaraju, Kandukuru DSP Srinivasul and others also went to the village and brought the situation under control.
“We are yet to register the FIR and have not made any arrests so far as the murder of the man involved a large number of people. We have pressed into service dog squads and Clues Team to collect the evidence from the spot,” Lakshman said.