Nurse Raped, Murdered In Hospital Quarters

Pahadishareef police have detained one Md Sanaullah in connection with the case. Police said Sanaullah, during questioning, allegedly confessed that he entered the victim’s hostel room through a ventilator and assaulted her. When she resisted and raised an alarm, he allegedly smothered and strangled her. After the assault, he fled through the same ventilator, a senior police officer said. The arrest of Sanaullah, a native of Bihar who worked as a mechanic and supervisor at a real estate company, has not yet been officially announced.

The victim had been working as a nurse at a private hospital for seven months and was staying with a colleague from the same district in the nurses’ quarters on the premises.

The victim’s colleagues grew suspicious when she did not report for duty at noon and informed the management. “When she did not turn up, we called her on her phone but there was no response,” a hospital employee said.

Hospital security personnel and staff reached her room and found the door latched from inside. When they looked through the open ventilator, they saw her lying on the floor. Duty doctors checked her pulse, declared her dead and immediately informed the police.

The incident is believed to have occurred at around 2.40 am on Saturday. Police suspect that the attacker entered the victim’s room by jumping over the compound wall from an adjacent open plot. The nurses’ quarters is located at the rear of the hospital building. The place lacks proper lighting and there was no security guard to monitor the quarters, sources disclosed. The compound wall is low, allowing easy entry to anyone.

The hospital is located on the Srisailam Highway, close to the ORR and Nehru ORR Exit-14, which connects to RGIA, Shamshabad.

“On being informed, we rushed to the crime scene along with the Clues teams and collected evidence. Doctors at the OGH mortuary confirmed that the victim had been raped. We also found multiple injuries on her body,” a police officer said.

The victim’s aunt, who is the complainant in the case, said, “Police should take stern action against the culprit and ensure that we get justice. The culprit should be given capital punishment.”

“There were bleeding injuries on her face. She is suspected to have been murdered by an unidentified person,” a senior police official said. The official said police were investigating the circumstances surrounding her death from all angles.

Local Congress and BJP leaders, along with the victim’s family members, held a protest in front of the Pahadishareef police station, demanding strict action against the suspect. The family collected the body from OGH and took it to their native village in Bhadrachalam, where the last rites will be performed on Monday.

BJP leaders alleged that police tried to suppress the facts in the incident. BJP’s Maheshwaram Assembly constituency incharge Andela Sriramulu Yadav and other leaders visited the Osmania General Hospital mortuary, where a postmortem examination was being performed on the woman’s body, and held a protest. Yadav alleged that the victim was attacked with a hammer and demanded strict action against the accused.

He said a girl had been assaulted and murdered on Rakshabandhan day and accused the local police of negligence. He said activists had lodged a complaint with Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, seeking a thorough and transparent probe. Yadav also demanded that the government provide justice to her family.

Expressing shock over the death, women and child welfare minister Danasari ‘Seethakka’ Anasuya called DGP C.V. Anand over the phone and told him to conduct a thorough inquiry into the incident. Steps should be taken without delay to expedite the probe and ensure justice to the bereaved family, she said in an official release.

Seethakka spoke to local police and other officials and obtained details. The officials informed the minister that the accused had been taken into custody. Following the minister’s directives, officials of the women and child welfare department visited the Pahadishareef police station and obtained details of the case. The officials submitted a preliminary report to Seethakka.