On January 26, 2021, police in Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana, arrested a 45-year-old laborer named Maina Ramulu. The arrest closed two murder cases from the previous month, in which two women had been killed after leaving toddy shops in the city. At a press briefing the Hyderabad police commissioner, Anjani Kumar, went further. He set out a record of arrests that ran back to 2003 and said the man in custody had been involved in the deaths of 18 women.
That record included a murder conviction and a life sentence in 2011, an escape from a hospital where he was being treated as a prisoner, a rearrest in 2013, and two releases after petitions to the Telangana High Court, the second of them in July 2020. The two women whose deaths led to his 2021 arrest were killed in December 2020, after that last release, according to the police account.
The police account at that briefing was carried by the news agencies ANI and IANS and by reporters in Hyderabad.
Ramulu was born and raised in Aarutla village, in Kandi mandal of Sanga Reddy district, Telangana, according to the police commissioner's account reported by ANI. By 2021 he was living in Borabanda, in Hyderabad. Reports describe him as a laborer, and two of them, Madhyamam and the Hindi daily Amar Ujala, say he worked as a stone-cutter.
The commissioner told reporters that Ramulu's parents arranged his marriage when he was 21 and that his wife left him for another man. ANI's version says she eloped soon after the wedding; the IANS version says she later eloped. Anjani Kumar said that from then on he held a grudge against women, and he described the killings as the result of that grudge.
Gulf News reported a statement Ramulu himself gave to police after his arrest. In it he said he had suffered a great deal because of what his wife did, and that he had killed the women so that others would not suffer as he had. That is his own explanation, given in custody. The police record, as ANI reported it, describes the earlier killings as murders for gain, and in the two December 2020 cases police said he took the women's jewelry and valuables.
The police account of his method was consistent across the reports. He looked for women on their own at toddy shops, the outlets that sell palm wine, and at country liquor vends. He drank with them, offered them money, and persuaded them to go with him to an isolated place. There he killed them, by strangling or with a stone, and took what they were wearing of value, often silver ornaments. Gulf News, reporting the commissioner's briefing, said the women were usually in their 30s.
These details come from the police. Ramulu had not been tried for the two December 2020 killings when they were made public, and the police descriptions of the earlier cases were given as background to the new arrest.
Gulf News reported that Ramulu was first arrested in 2009, at Narsingi, near Hyderabad. The reports do not say which killing led to that arrest or how police connected him to it.
According to ANI's account of the police record, the Additional District and Sessions Judge of Ranga Reddy district sentenced him on February 21, 2011 to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500 in a murder case. Gulf News also places the life sentence in February 2011, imposed by a local court. The IANS report printed by The News Minute, The Tribune and OrissaPOST says he was sentenced to life in 2009. Amar Ujala gives February 2011 for both the arrest and the sentence.
He was held at the Central Prison in Cherlapally, in Hyderabad.
On December 1, 2011, according to ANI, Ramulu was moved from Cherlapally to the Mental Hospital at Erragadda in Hyderabad for treatment. Gulf News reported that he had been admitted to a mental hospital in the city while in prison; the reports do not say what condition he was being treated for.
On the night of December 30, 2011, he escaped from the hospital together with five other prisoners, ANI reported, and a case was registered against the men who escaped. Gulf News gives the same date. The IANS report gives the date as December 12, 2011, and describes the place as the prison section of the Erragadda hospital.
While he was at large, police said, Ramulu committed five more murders for gain. ANI's account places two of them in the Bowenpally police station area, two in the Chanda Nagar area and one in the Dundigal area. Amar Ujala gives the same three police areas, naming Bowenpally as part of the Hyderabad police and Chanda Nagar as part of Cyberabad. Gulf News described the five killings as taking place on the outskirts of the city between 2011 and 2013.
Bowenpally police arrested him on May 13, 2013, in those five cases, according to ANI. The names of the five women, and the outcome of the cases against him for their deaths, were not given in the January 2021 reports.
On October 3, 2018, according to ANI, Ramulu was released from jail after an appeal petition in the Telangana High Court. IANS reported that he was released in 2018 after securing bail from the High Court; OrissaPOST's copy of the IANS report gives the month as July 2018. Gulf News also described his release as bail and said he had served about eight years in jail. None of the reports describes the High Court's order itself, and none says whether his life sentence was set aside or only suspended while an appeal was pending.
After this release, police said, he killed two more women, one in the Shamirpet police station area and one in the Patancheru area. He was arrested again and remanded to judicial custody. The dates of those killings and of the arrest were not given.
On July 31, 2020, he was released again, this time from the Central Prison at Cherlapally, according to ANI. The Tribune's IANS report says he was released from jail in July 2020. The reports do not explain the legal basis of this second release, beyond ANI's statement that he had been released after an appeal in the High Court.
On December 10, 2020, according to the police, Ramulu met a woman at a toddy shop in Bala Nagar, in the Cyberabad police area of Hyderabad. He invited her to drink and offered her money, then took her to an isolated place near Japtha Singyapally village, in the area of the Mulugu police station in Siddipet district. After they drank together, police said, he strangled her and left with her silver jewelry.
She was never identified in the reports that followed. ANI gave her age as about 35 to 45; the IANS report gave 35 to 40. Gulf News described her as a woman in her 30s.
Kavala Venkatamma was 50 and worked as a laborer. Her husband went to the Jubilee Hills police station in Hyderabad on January 1, 2021 to report her missing. He told police she had been gone since 8 a.m. on December 30, 2020.
Police later said that Ramulu had met her that day at a toddy shop in Yousufguda, in the Jubilee Hills police area, and had taken her to an isolated place in Ankushapur village, in the area of the Ghatkesar police station. There, after they had been drinking, he killed her and took her valuables, according to the police account reported by ANI and IANS. Her body was found at Ankushapur on January 4, 2021. IANS reported that her cell phone, recovered with her, helped police identify her.
The missing-person complaint went to the Commissioner's Task Force, North Zone, of the Hyderabad city police, which set about tracing her. CCTV footage showed her boarding an auto-rickshaw with Ramulu at the toddy shop in Yousufguda, according to the IANS report. Officers then worked through about 500 CCTV recordings covering the route from Yousufguda to Ankushapur, ANI reported, and identified Ramulu on January 26, 2021.
The task force worked jointly with the Rachakonda police commissionerate, to which the Ghatkesar police station belongs. The joint operation detected two murder cases against him: one at Ghatkesar police station, in Rachakonda, for Kavala Venkatamma, and one at Mulugu police station, in the Siddipet commissionerate, for the woman killed on December 10. After the arrest he was handed to the station house officer at Ghatkesar for further investigation. Amar Ujala reported that the arrest came about 20 days after the inquiry began.
At the briefing, Anjani Kumar gave the record that had turned up when police checked Ramulu's history. According to ANI, he had been arrested in 21 cases: 16 murders for gain, four property cases and one case of escaping from custody. The commissioner said he had committed 16 offenses since 2003 and had also been involved in property theft. The IANS report put it as 16 murders between 2003 and 2019, among 21 cases in all.
Gulf News quoted the commissioner as saying Ramulu had earlier been arrested and convicted in 16 murder cases, and that he had been involved in killing 18 women over 24 years. The Tribune's own report, the next day, said police found he had been involved in 16 murder cases and that he reportedly killed 18 women over 24 years. Madhyamam described the 18 killings as spread over almost 17 years. The Rachakonda police commissioner, Mahesh Bhagwat, was quoted by Amar Ujala as saying the 18 women had been killed across the Rachakonda commissionerate and the Mahabubnagar and Ranga Reddy districts.
Police gave 18 as the number of women. The figure of 21 that appeared in some headlines is the number of earlier cases of all kinds that ANI reported, not a count of victims.
The legal outcomes in this case need to be kept apart.
One conviction is stated with a date and a court: the life sentence for murder imposed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge of Ranga Reddy district on February 21, 2011. One report, Gulf News, quotes the police commissioner as saying Ramulu was convicted in 16 murder cases. The other reports say he was arrested or involved in 16 murder cases. None of the reports lists the 16 cases, names the women, or gives the verdicts in the cases after the first.
The two High Court releases are also unclear. ANI describes both as releases after appeals. IANS and Gulf News describe the 2018 release as bail. Neither account says whether any conviction was overturned.
The two December 2020 killings were charges, not convictions. When the reports were published, Ramulu had been arrested and the cases were under investigation at the Ghatkesar and Mulugu police stations. In those cases he is accused.
Several points vary between the January 2021 reports. The date of the 2011 escape is given as December 30 by ANI and Gulf News and as December 12 by IANS. The year of the first life sentence is given as 2011 by ANI and Gulf News and as 2009 by IANS. The 2018 release is dated October 3 by ANI and July by OrissaPOST's copy of the IANS report. The age range of the unidentified woman differs between ANI and IANS. The span of the killings is given as 24 years by the Hyderabad commissioner and by The Tribune, and as almost 17 years by Madhyamam; the police record itself begins in 2003.
Amar Ujala placed Kavala Venkatamma's killing on January 4, the day her body was found; ANI and IANS give December 30 as the day she went missing with him.
His motive is his own and the police's explanation. The commissioner linked the killings to the end of his marriage, and Ramulu's statement to police said the same. The police also described every case as a murder for gain.
The reports published in the days after January 26, 2021 describe Ramulu as in police custody, handed over to Ghatkesar police for investigation of the Kavala Venkatamma case, with the Mulugu case also detected. They do not report a court appearance, a charge sheet or a trial date. When the last of those reports appeared, on January 28, 2021, he was in custody and accused in the two December 2020 cases.
2003: Start of the killings, according to the police record given in January 2021.
2009: First arrest, at Narsingi, near Hyderabad (Gulf News).
February 21, 2011: Sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500 for murder by the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Ranga Reddy district (ANI).
December 1, 2011: Moved from Cherlapally Central Prison to the Mental Hospital, Erragadda, for treatment (ANI).
December 30, 2011: Escapes from the hospital at night with five other prisoners (ANI; IANS gives December 12).
2011 to 2013: Five murders for gain in the Bowenpally, Chanda Nagar and Dundigal police areas, according to police.
May 13, 2013: Arrested by Bowenpally police in those five cases (ANI).
October 3, 2018: Released after a petition to the Telangana High Court (ANI; reported by IANS and Gulf News as bail).
After the 2018 release: Two more killings, in the Shamirpet and Patancheru police areas, according to police; rearrested and remanded to judicial custody.
July 31, 2020: Released from Cherlapally Central Prison (ANI).
December 10, 2020: A woman whose name is not known is killed near Japtha Singyapally village, Siddipet district, according to police.
December 30, 2020: Kavala Venkatamma, 50, goes missing after leaving a toddy shop in Yousufguda, Hyderabad.
January 1, 2021: Her husband reports her missing at Jubilee Hills police station.
January 4, 2021: Her body is found at Ankushapur village, Ghatkesar police area.
January 26, 2021: Ramulu is identified after a review of about 500 CCTV recordings and arrested by the Hyderabad Commissioner's Task Force North Zone and Rachakonda police; Commissioner Anjani Kumar announces the arrest.
January 27 to 28, 2021: Reports describe him as in custody and accused in the two December 2020 cases.