HYDERABAD: Just hours before six lives were extinguished in one of the most shocking crimes to rock Hyderabad’s outskirts, a father was seen playing cricket with his two young sons, laughing and spending time with them like any other evening.By the end of the night, the same man had allegedly killed the boys and their mother after murdering a teenage girl, her mother and grandmother: a family that had accused him in a POCSO Act case registered barely two months ago.“He took the boys for a haircut, brought them home and played cricket with them in the nearby ground. Nobody could have imagined that within a few hours he would kill his own children,” said Kappera Kishtayya, cousin of Raj Kumar’s wife Saritha. “The children were happily playing with their father. That is what is haunting us the most.”Relatives said Raj Kumar’s life had unravelled over the years due to alcohol addiction, online betting and gambling. Though he had completed Intermediate education, he did not pursue any regular occupation and gradually sold off a large portion of the family’s agricultural land, they alleged.“He sold the land in phases and squandered the money on alcohol, betting and online card games,” alleged K Satyanarayana, a relative.“Instead of taking care of his family or farming, he became addicted to these habits. But even then, none of us thought he would one day murder his wife and children,” he said.
‘Frequent quarrels’
The couple’s marriage issues had begun amid family opposition. Raj Kumar and Saritha, who belonged to different castes, fell in love and married in 2018 after he allegedly disrupted Saritha’s engagement to another man.“Before their marriage, Saritha’s engagement had been fixed with another person. Raj Kumar broke that alliance and later married her,” said Turapati Narayana, Saritha’s brother-in-law. After the marriage, Raj Kumar’s parents stopped speaking to him and distanced themselves from the family, he said.The couple later moved to Shabad. According to Saritha’s relatives, it was during this period that Raj Kumar allegedly came into contact with the teenage girl in 2022. As the two families lived next to each other, he allegedly began stalking and harassing her in the name of love.“When Saritha came to know about his behaviour towards the girl, frequent quarrels started between the couple,” Narayana said.The family eventually shifted from Shabad to their native village of Daivalaguda. Relatives, however, alleged that Raj Kumar still continued to pursue and harass the girl.“We still don’t know why he killed Saritha and the children,” said Kishtayya. “No one can understand why those innocent children had to die. They had done nothing.”
