For 63 hours, the answers to six murders in a quiet farming village near Hyderabad lay with a man who had simply disappeared.
His phone was on airplane mode. Surveillance cameras captured him stepping onto railway tracks as a train approached, only for him to step away at the last moment. A bus ticket to L.B. Nagar in the capital and ₹1,206 in cash was later found on him. Three days later, his body was discovered 20 km from home beside a bottle of herbicide.
The trail led back to Daivalaguda village in Shabad, about 50 km from Hyderabad, where violent crime was virtually unheard of until the night of July 10. Between 10.30 p.m. and midnight, six people were killed in two houses six kilometres apart.
The alleged killer, Parvathi Raj Kumar, was out on anticipatory bail in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (PoCSO) Act case involving one of the victims. At 11.50 p.m., he called his father, confessed to the killings and said he intended to end his life.
The victims were 17-year-old Akshara (name changed), her mother Lakshmi, 44, and her grandmother Rukkamma, and Raj Kumar’s wife Saritha, 32, and their two young sons, aged 4 and 18 months.
Raj Kumar’s disappearance and death have left investigators piecing together CCTV footage, a 13-minute video, forensic evidence and questions over the handling of the PoCSO case. With the only suspect now dead, many of the questions may never be answered.
For residents of Daivalaguda, the case has left behind a haunting question: had Raj Kumar been arrested after the PoCSO case was registered on May 16, instead of securing anticipatory bail on June 13, could the killings have been prevented?
The 63-hour gap
Police are still reconstructing Raj Kumar’s movements during those 63 hours.
According to the preliminary investigation, Raj Kumar left his Daivalaguda home at 10.30 p.m. on July 10 in a red car hired from a man in Shadnagar after pledging his two-wheeler. Police believe the six murders were committed over the next hour.
Relatives of the victims break down, in Daivalaguda village of Shadab mandal in Rangareddy district.
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RAMAKRISHNA G.
Investigators believe he first drove to PoCSO complainant Akshara’s house, where he allegedly killed the girl’s mother and grandmother before leaving with her around 11.10 p.m. He returned home at 11.22 p.m., leaving the girl in the car, and is suspected to have killed his wife and two sons before driving away about 10 minutes later. He then allegedly took the girl to a lake about 200 metres away, where she was killed.
Raj Kumar, police say, abandoned the car near Thimmapur village, where he stepped on to the railway tracks before retreating, and then headed towards L.B. Nagar. His movements after that remain under investigation.
Hours before the murders, at 4.55 p.m. on July 10, Raj Kumar recorded a 13-minute video on his phone that has become a key piece of evidence. In it, he claimed Akshara had been pursuing him for nearly one-and-a-half years and that her family later demanded money while threatening to send him to jail. He said he had sold two acres of land and paid them a portion of the money.
Suspect P. Raj Kumar’s body was found nearly 63 hours after he allegedly killed six people.
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Special Arrangement
He also spoke of his strained relationship with his wife and his fear that he had nothing to leave behind for his two sons.
Raj Kumar said he had decided to kill Akshara, her mother and grandmother before killing his own family and ending his life. Police are independently verifying the allegations in the video, which remains the only account of the alleged dispute.
Medical and forensic experts say the outcome of herbicide poisoning depends on the chemical involved, the quantity absorbed, how quickly treatment begins and the victim’s overall health.
A senior forensic medicine expert at a State-run hospital, requesting anonymity, says herbicides primarily affect the lungs before damaging vital organs, particularly the kidneys. Acute kidney failure is among the leading causes of death in severe poisoning cases.
The suspected herbicide, marketed under the brand name ‘Display’, contains active ingredients such as carfentrazone-ethyl or quizalofop-p-ethyl. Exposure can cause chemical burns to the mouth and throat, severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, and in significant quantities may lead to respiratory failure and multi-organ damage. Raj Kumar’s family claimed he was an alcoholic.
“In a person who has consumed alcohol, the poison acts much faster. If the victim is not rushed to hospital and treatment is delayed, even a relatively small absorbed quantity can prove fatal,” the doctor says.
Forensic experts caution against assuming Raj Kumar consumed the entire one-litre bottle found beside his body.
“It is highly unlikely that a person can consume an entire one-litre bottle. The body’s natural response is to reject the toxic substance almost immediately through vomiting,” says a Telangana Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) official.
According to the official, most of the poison is expelled through vomiting, but the quantity absorbed before that can still enter the bloodstream and cause severe organ damage.
People gather outside the Shabad Police Station following the alleged murder of six persons on July 10.
| Photo Credit:
RAMAKRISHNA G.
Police found traces of white liquid and blood around Raj Kumar’s mouth and nose. Experts say such bleeding can result from the corrosive effects of the chemical, disruption of blood clotting or terminal multi-organ failure.
The toxicology examination is expected to establish whether herbicide poisoning caused his death.
“If the body reaches us before extensive medical treatment, traces of the original poison can often be recovered from the stomach contents and sometimes from blood samples. Even when that is not possible, we identify the poison through its metabolites, which are extracted from organs such as the kidneys and heart before being analysed,” the FSL official says.
Officials say toxicology reports usually take up to a month but can be completed within a week in priority cases.
PoCSO and the question of protection
The six murders have renewed focus on the gap between the legal protections available to an accused and those available to victims and witnesses once a criminal case is registered.
The issue gained further attention after another case involving a minor girl was reported in Malakpet, Hyderabad, on July 13. A 17-year-old was allegedly taken from her home, days after her family complained that a man had been stalking her. Police registered a case under Section 11 of the PoCSO Act and recorded her statement at the Bharosa Centre. After her parents brought her home, the man allegedly arrived around 2 a.m. and took her away. CCTV footage reportedly showed them leaving together. Five police teams have been formed to trace them.
In the Shabad case, the PoCSO case was booked on May 16 and Raj Kumar secured anticipatory bail on June 13. Data shows that 52.54% of PoCSO cases in Telangana remain pending trial while 9.20% are still under investigation. Only 3.41% have resulted in convictions.
Although PoCSO offences are non-bailable, courts may grant bail depending on the facts of each case. Offences punishable with less than seven years’ imprisonment, including Sections 11 and 12 invoked in the Shabad case, generally face less stringent scrutiny than offences involving penetrative sexual assault under Sections 4 and 6. Raj Kumar was released on a personal bond of ₹20,000.
Legal experts say the Shabad case highlights the difficult balance between safeguarding the rights of the accused and ensuring the safety of victims and witnesses while a case is pending.
Advocate P.V. Krishnamachary says the case exposed both investigative lapses and systemic shortcomings: “The criminal justice system has adequate provisions to protect the liberty of an accused, but there are very limited mechanisms to ensure the safety of victims, complainants and witnesses while the case is pending.”
He points out that India still lacks a consistently implemented victim and witness protection framework for ordinary criminal cases, leaving complainants vulnerable even after an accused is released on bail.
Akshara’s family members alleged they repeatedly approached Shabad police after Raj Kumar’s release, fearing that he could retaliate. The investigating officer in the PoCSO case, sub-inspector Ramesh, was later suspended.
Krishnamachary says victims and witnesses should receive protection until the trial concludes, while accused persons who pose a continuing threat should be closely monitored. “Had these measures been effectively implemented, this incident could possibly have been prevented,” he says.
He also stresses that bail conditions are meaningful only if police ensure they are followed. “The surety itself is rarely an issue. Anyone can submit that. The real question is whether the police ensure that every bail condition is being followed and whether they maintain surveillance over an accused who may pose a continuing threat,” he adds.
After the PoCSO case was registered against Raj Kumar, police were required under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) to issue a notice directing him to appear before the investigating officer.
Legal experts say that once he failed to comply and absconded, police had sufficient grounds to seek his arrest. The delay, however, allowed him to approach the court for anticipatory bail. Had he been arrested, he would instead have had to seek regular bail from custody, a process that typically takes two to three months in PoCSO courts, Krishnamachary says.
He also questions whether stronger opposition by the prosecution could have altered the course of the case: “Police’s failure to strongly oppose the plea allowed the court to grant him protection from arrest.”
The BNSS, enacted following Supreme Court rulings against routine arrests in offences punishable with up to seven years’ imprisonment, requires police to issue a notice before making an arrest unless custody is necessary to prevent absconding, evidence tampering or further offences.
Krishnamachary says these safeguards were intended to prevent arbitrary arrests in cases such as dowry harassment, sexual offences and those under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. But, he adds, they can be exploited if investigating agencies fail to place sufficient material before the court to justify custody.
According to legal experts, delayed investigations, overburdened courts and inadequate monitoring of accused persons released on bail continue to be among the biggest structural challenges confronting the criminal justice system.
The unanswered trail
Daivalaguda has returned to its familiar rhythm. The fields remain unchanged, but residents now remember July 10 as the night two homes became crime scenes and six lives were lost.
The family of the sole survivor has been given ₹10 lakh in financial assistance. Officials have offered the 19-year-old, who is differently abled, admission to a rehabilitation institution in Hyderabad for long-term care.
Raj Kumar’s family refused to claim his body. Following the post-mortem at Chevella Government Hospital, the municipality performed his last rites at a cremation ground in Shabad.
With the alleged killer dead, investigators are left with a video in which he presents his version of the dispute, CCTV footage tracing parts of his final journey and a pending toxicology report that may establish how he died.
But the central question outlives the investigation itself: were the killings the final act of a man who had already decided to die, or the consequence of a system that failed to recognise the danger in the weeks between a PoCSO complaint, anticipatory bail and bloodshed?
