PALNADU: An ASHA worker (46) was raped and killed in Macherla in the Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh. The case had come to light recently after three men were arrested for the crime on Sunday.

The woman was working as an ASHA worker for Anuvu Chenchu Colony and BKV Palem Chenchu Colony in Nagulavaram Panchayath in Macherla mandal. District SP Ravi Shanker Reddy said that on 17 of this month, her husband Laskar came to the woman’s house and couldn’t find her. Both Laskar and the woman’s father Lalu went in search of the woman. A man named Muthaiah told them that she had come to his house for help as she had lost her mobile phone at 9 pm on the 16th. As he couldn’t help her, three men named Seelam Anji, Savita Chinna Anji, and Bhaisawamy, who were nearby overheard the conversation and offered to help her saying they knew someone in their village who could help trace her phone. They took her to a man named Venkanna, but he told her that he could help only if the phone was switched on. She is said to have left with the trio and had gone missing.

The family approached the police and a missing case was registered. Based on Muthaiah’s statements, the police traced the three accused and took them into custody. Upon interrogation, they confessed to the crime. They allegedly raped the woman in a secluded spot and when she made noise Seelam Anji killed the woman by smashing her head with a boulder. They later placed her body between two boulders on the roadside and covered it with thatched leaves and left the place. They showed the police where the body was. Police took the three men into custody and shifted the body to Macherla Government Hospital for post-mortem.

Police said that the three had a criminal record and in January 2020 were named accused in the rape and murder case of a woman in Gudipadu village of Veldurthi Mandal.

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