A panchayat dream and a daughter’s murder

On the day of January 29, Mustaq Ahmed, caput constable of the Yedapally constabulary presumption successful Telangana’s Nizamabad, and Mohan, a constable, were questioning residents astir a onshore dispute, erstwhile they received a telephone informing them that a miss had been washed distant successful the Nizam Sagar distributary canal. The waterway ran conscionable a stone’s propulsion from the ARP campy successful Yedapally mandal, disconnected the Nizamabad-Bodhan National Highway 63.

Ahmed says they instantly kick-started their motorcycle and acceptable off. “When we reached the spot, we saw rescuers laying the assemblage of the miss connected the bund side,” helium recalls.

The girl, sporting a glittery bindi connected her forehead, seemed to beryllium astir 5-6 years old. Barring a contusion connected her forehead, she did not look to person immoderate different injuries. The policemen observed that dissimilar successful astir drowning incidents they had probed, the assemblage showed nary signs of bloating. “She had died conscionable a fewer minutes earlier. We felt blameworthy that we could not prevention her,” Ahmed says.

The duo made immoderate speedy inquiries. They recovered that an 18-year-old man, P. Pawan Kalyan, was lasting adjacent the tiny span implicit the canal and speaking to a person connected the telephone erstwhile helium noticed the miss being swept distant successful the canal.

“Kalyan said helium shouted for help,” Ahmed says. “Venkatesh, an car operator who was nearby, rushed to the spot connected proceeding him yell. By then, the miss had seemingly been swept further away.”

Venkatesh did not springiness up. He rode his motorcycle on the bund’s mud roadworthy and, aft astir 300 metres, jumped into the canal’s 3-foot-deep watercourse adjacent a tiny gate. He caught the miss and pulled her retired with the assistance of others. She was unresponsive and had nary pulse.

The miss with the bindi

The constabulary began to marque inquiries to place the girl. They sent notices to each the constabulary stations nether the Nizamabad Police Commissionerate to spot if immoderate complaints had been filed astir missing girls, but nary came up. They took the assemblage to the Nizamabad Government Hospital. Then, they registered a lawsuit nether Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which mandates the constabulary to inquire and study connected cases of suicide, homicide, oregon suspicious, unnatural deaths.

While checking with adjacent constabulary stations, the investigators besides shared the girl’s pictures and an audio connection connected WhatsApp groups, seeking assistance to found her identity. Three days passed with nary leads. The probe seemed to person deed a dormant extremity — until constable Sudheer received a telephone that provided important details.

Sudheer was the operator for the ellipse inspector, D. Vijay Babu, who was investigating the case. The caller, a adjacent comparative from Mukhed, a taluq office successful Nanded district, Maharashtra, contacted Sudheer claiming helium knew the girl. He sent a photo, which showed a kid who looked precisely similar the 1 recovered successful the canal, wearing the aforesaid clothes. The comparative said the miss was from Mukhed, astir 50 kilometres from Bodhan, and had been reported missing. He added that villagers were disquieted and had been discussing her disappearance.

The Bodhan constabulary contacted the girl’s family. A fewer colony elders and members of the family, including the girl’s parent Ankita, arrived successful Bodhan and identified the body. The miss was Prachi, the older of the duplicate daughters of a hairsbreadth salon owner, Pandurang Baburao Kondamangale. After forensic doctors performed an autopsy, which confirmed that she had died owed to drowning, the constabulary handed the assemblage implicit to the family. As they prepared to instrumentality to Maharashtra, the Yedapally constabulary began their work.

Alone astatine a canal

Although the autopsy confirmed drowning arsenic the origin of death, the constabulary remained puzzled arsenic to however the miss had ended up astatine the canal alone.

The ARP camp, often mistaken by galore for a defence oregon probe facility, is simply a clump of 3 villages. These grew astir the Nizam Sugar Factory, established decades agone to process locally grown sugarcane. With irrigation from the factory’s canals, adjacent distant areas are covered with lush greenish fields of paddy and different crops. The canal’s broadside bunds — overgrown with bushes and flanked by sprawling paddy fields — conceal the h2o distributary that runs conscionable a fewer feet away, parallel to the road. It was unusual for a miss of her property to person conscionable wandered disconnected there.

“We believed that idiosyncratic had taken her up to the canal. Whether she slipped into the h2o oregon was pushed was the question,” says Bodhan Assistant Commissioner of Police, P. Srinivas.

The investigators began probing the case. When they recovered a lead, they brought Kondamangale to Bodhan. He said that his girl had gone missing from January 29 and that helium had approached the section constabulary to hint her. Circle inspector Vijay quotes him saying, “We were hoping she would travel location sooner oregon later.”

Despite the incessant probing, Kondamangale stuck to his story. That is when, the inspector says, the constabulary yet presented the pb they had — CCTV footage. The video showed Kondamangale riding his motorcycle successful Bodhan with his girl Prachi sitting pillion. Realising that his screen was blown, Kondamangale allegedly began to confess to his crime.

According to the investigators, Kondamangale near his salon with his girl seated connected the two-wheeler. Hours later, they reached the ARP camp. “He stopped astatine a secluded place. He carried the miss successful his arms and walked towards the canal. He stood connected the canal’s borderline and dropped her into the water,” Vijay Babu says.

The constabulary accidental they were horrified that Kondamangale had taken his ain daughter’s life. The motive, however, was truthful shocking that they could hardly judge it. “He said helium oregon his woman wanted to contention the panchayat (local body) elections. But the two-child regularisation of the Maharashtra authorities was a stumbling artifact for them due to the fact that they had 3 children: duplicate daughters and a 3-year-old son,” says Nizamabad Police Commissioner, Sai Chaitanya.

The 2-child regularisation for panchayat elections was imposed by assorted State governments successful the aboriginal 1990s, chiefly arsenic a colonisation power measure. It was enactment successful spot to guarantee accountability among section representatives.

“To scope his governmental ambition, Kondamangale decided to termination 1 of his children and chose Prachi,” the Commissioner says. Although Kondamangale had allegedly admitted to the crime, investigators inactive had respective escaped ends to necktie up. They began probing his background, starting from his colony of Kerur, 8 km from Mukhed.

Hungry for the post

Kerur’s astir 3,000 residents are solely babelike connected agriculture. The colony has constrictive streets, lined mostly with thatched-roof houses and a fewer factual ones, and is surrounded by immense tracts of adust land. Some streets are soiled with overflowing drainage water, portion a fewer person tiled pathways. The villagers assertion that their sarpanch, 36-year-old Ganesh Ramachandra Shinde, was doing his spot to make the village.

Panchayat elections are scheduled to beryllium held successful the colony successful the adjacent 6 months. While, according to a lottery system, Kerur was nether the ‘open category’ 5 years ago, which means that the spot for the sarpanch is not reserved for immoderate circumstantial societal category, this clip it is reserved for persons from Other Backward Classes (women). Kondamangale, who runs the hairsbreadth salon successful a rented commercialized analyzable connected the main road, lives successful a rented location successful Baralinaka of Mukhed. Since his household belongs to the OBC category, his woman was eligible to contention for the sarpanch post.

The constabulary are not definite however the salon proprietor abruptly decided to participate politics. “At immoderate point, Kondamangale began aspiring for either himself oregon his woman to go the sarpanch. He confessed that the sitting sarpanch, Shinde, was acceptable to enactment him if helium chose to contest,” Vijay Babu says.

As per Kondamangale’s admittance earlier the police, Shinde utilized to support dropping by his salon and sometimes his house. He encouraged Kondamangale to tract his woman arsenic a candidate. “The 2nd accused, Shinde, said helium would walk ₹15 lakh for this and would instrumentality attraction of immoderate problems and asked the archetypal accused, Kondamangale, not to uncover his sanction to anyone,” states the remand study submitted to the section court.

Bolstered by Shinde’s support, Kondamangale felt helium was inching person to the spot of sarpanch. The lone roadblock was the 2-child rule.

Vijay Babu says that initially, Kondamangale confessed helium had considered giving up his 3-year-old lad for adoption to 1 of his uncles. Since helium had not obtained a commencement certificate for the child, helium thought this would let him to bypass the two-child norm. But helium dropped the idea, arsenic infirmary records listed his woman arsenic the child’s mother, which, helium believed, could origin problems for their governmental ambitions.

“He admitted during the interrogation that helium and his comparative went to the Mukhed municipal bureau to verify if helium could springiness his lad up for adoption. They adjacent went to Pune to question clarifications connected the matter. We are verifying his statements,” says Vijay Babu. “Realising that the adoption program was not the solution, helium began exploring what different enactment could marque him oregon his woman sarpanch and yet decided to termination 1 of his children.” The constabulary accidental that inquiries with Ankita and different household members suggested that Kondamangale was peculiarly fond of Prachi, and she of him, which makes the lawsuit each the much perplexing for them.

Prachi’s duplicate sister, younger by conscionable a fewer minutes, reportedly did not similar sitting pillion connected the bike. On January 29, the constabulary say, Prachi did not spell to school. When she arrived astatine the salon a small earlier noon, her begetter told her helium would instrumentality her connected a agelong thrust and made her beryllium pillion connected the bike. “He masked his look with a towel and near his mobile telephone astatine the salon. This indicates that the execution was premeditated,” Vijay Babu says.

Kondamangale started from Mukhed towards Bodhan. Entering the Yedapally area, helium followed the Nizam Sagar distributary canal, stopped astatine an isolated point, and dropped her into the water. “While she was screaming ‘Papa, Papa,’ helium did not look back. He returned to the main roadworthy and past proceeded towards Maharashtra,” reads a condemnation successful the remand report.

When Ankita asked astir the whereabouts of her child, Kondamangale seemingly led her to judge that helium had gone retired connected enactment and was not definite wherever she was. The mates approached the section police, requesting them to hint her. The investigators judge that the accused deliberately did not lodge a ceremonial ailment with the section police. “Had helium done that, a lawsuit would person been registered and they would person instantly recovered retired astir his ghastly act,” says an investigator.

On February 2, the constabulary revised the charges to Sections 140(1) (kidnapping), 103(1) (murder), and 238 (destruction of evidence, providing mendacious information) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. They arrested the 2 accused and remanded them to judicial custody. Ankita, her daughter, and lad person shifted to their relative’s house.

Support for the sarpanch

In Kerur village, Shinde enjoys a batch of support. Several villagers picture him arsenic “innocent” and request that helium beryllium acceptable escaped immediately. When Yedapally sub-inspector, M. Rama, went to the village, the villagers gheraoed her, raising slogans that their sarpanch had been falsely implicated successful the case.

“In the fewer years, our village, nether the enactment of Shinde, has seen immoderate progress. New drainage lines were laid. We are getting tiled interior roads,” says Venkat Shinde, a resident.

Another villager, Balaji, says, “We are not definite wherefore Kondamangale killed his child. But we cognize that our sarpanch is not the benignant to abet a crime.”

Rajesh of Kerur, who runs a bookstore astatine Mukhed, feels, “Our villagers were already teasing Pandurag by referring to him arsenic sarpanch saab whenever they met him. May beryllium that went to his caput and helium resorted to this utmost measurement of sidesplitting Prachi.”

Some residents are upset that the lawsuit has tarnished the sanction of the village. Hanmant Baliram Shinde says, “This lawsuit is showing our full colony successful mediocre airy adjacent though we did not bash thing wrong.”

For the ARP campy sarpanch, P. Vinod Kumar, the complainant successful the case, Prachi’s decease is the astir disturbing incidental of his life. “Every clip I walk by this canal, the horrible representation flashes successful my mind. For maine and others of the colony who saw it, we conscionable can’t shingle it off,” helium says.

ramu.marri@thehindu.co.in