Suitcase murder still a mystery
Hyderabad: On the morning of August 3, when the Humayunnagar police received a call stating that a suitcase was found abandoned at the crowded Mehdipatnam bus stand, little did they realise that they are going to investigate one of the most complicated cases.
After a string of terror attacks in the city, police initially suspected that the suitcase might possibly contain explosives and called in the bomb disposal squad. After checking the suitcase with their equipment, the experts heaved a sigh of relief that it did not contain any explosives.
It was only after opening the suitcase, the police, to their shock, realised that they have a case much more complicated than explosives. They found the body of a woman aged around 30 years stuffed in a suitcase with her limbs tied. The woman's face was smeared with ink to conceal her identity.
The body was stored in a cold storage for two days before it was stuffed in the suitcase and left at the Mehdipatnam bus stand by unidentified persons who reportedly came in a car.
The investigation which started more than eight months ago still remains inconclusive as the woman's identity is yet to be established. All the efforts of the investigators hit a stumbling block.
The investigators alerted all the police stations across the state, DNA tests performed on a couple who suspected that the woman might be their child, sketches of two women 'suspects' were released and even teams went to neighbouring Maharashtra. Yet, the woman's identity remained a mystery.
Dozens of families, whose relatives or kin of the same age group went missing, from Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Medak and other districts approached the Humayunnagar police but none of them matched with the particulars of the deceased woman leaving the police clueless.
Finally, it was a couple from Nalgonda who could found the deceased woman similar with their daughter, Renuka, who went missing from the Gandhi general hospital in the city. The couple from Halia, Nagamma and Brahmachary, suspected that the victim might be their daughter Renuka who went missing couple of days before the suitcase was found.
The colour complexion, age and height of the deceased and Renuka matched giving a ray of hope to the police. They performed DNA tests on the couple to ascertain whether it matched with the victim. Just at a time when the police were awaiting the reports and hoping for a breakthrough, they received another shock.
One fine day, Renuka walked straight into the Humayunnagar police station and told the investigators that she left her house unable to bear the harassment by her in-laws, bringing the investigation to nowhere once again.
The sketches of two women, who according to eye-witnesses came in a car and left the suitcase near the bus stop, released by the police failed to provide any clues about the killers.
News Posted: 21 April, 2011
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