Hyderabad: Over 24 hours after the ghastly murder of a five-year-old girl at Villa Orchids in Kowkoor , Bollaram police arrested the prime accused Vikram Kumar , a former security guard of the housing society late on Sunday night. Cops said that the accused spent less than 25 minutes inside the gated community to carry out the crime, deliberately choosing a secluded, dark spot in the clubhouse cellar with no CCTV coverage.




“Vikram confessed to have killed the girl to make quick money. He made her his target as he knew she stepped out to play in the evenings and that her family, which maintained a low profile, could afford to pay a ransom,” Malkajgiri police commissioner, B Sumathi, said while announcing his arrest.




A native of Nalanda in Bihar, Vikram had joined the society’s security staff four months ago. He was fired just a day before the crime for poor conduct.




Police said that the accused kept an eye on the girl, who had gone into the clubhouse to watch Bathukamma celebrations , and allegedly lured her to the under-construction cellar within the property, soon after she stepped out -- under some unknown pretext. Since the minor was acquainted to Vikram, she didn’t hesitate to follow him. Once in the cellar, he allegedly used construction material lying around to strangle her to death. He then tied her hands and legs, fastened bricks to her body and drowned her in a water sump, the commissioner added.




Immediately afterwards, Vikram exited the gated community through the main gate and called the minor’s family to demand a ransom. He had retrieved their numbers from the register kept at the society’s main gate. While both the child’s father and grandfather, who the accused spoke to, agreed to pay the ransom of Rs 20 lakh on condition that Vikram first make a WhatsApp video call to prove that the girl was alive, he refused to do so.




They family lodged a police complaint at around 9.45 pm on Saturday.




“For the first four hours after receiving the complaint, we checked footage from 130 CCTV cameras to locate the minor girl. Simultaneously searches were also conducted at Secunderabad railway station and other places to trace the accused, based on his mobile tower location,” Sumathi said.




After reviewing the investigation, at around 2 am on Sunday, police decided to search within the gated community, focusing on secluded parts of the campus. “That is when our team eventually found the girl’s body in the cellar, a spot that residents rarely visited,” she added.




Incidentally, residents of the community told police, Vikram had been caught smoking and drinking in the cellar just a few days earlier. When the matter came to the notice of his security agency, he was dismissed from his job.




“Meanwhile, after committing the crime, Vikram returned to his room in Kowkoor that he shared with other employees of the security agency. He later travelled using different modes of transport, including an autorickshaw, and reached Patancheru, where he was apprehended from late on Sunday night,” said the police commissioner.




After securing his judicial remand, police said they will seek custody of the accused for further interrogation. “We are also waiting for information from Nalanda police to verify Vikram’s antecedents,” Sumathi added.