Daijiworld Media Network - Vijayapura (SP)

Vijayapura, Oct 15: Even as arrangements are being made to hang sex maniac, Umesh Reddy, another serial rapist has surfaced from the district. During the police interrogation, the accused reportedly confessed to having raped six women including an old lady.

The new serial rapist happens to be Mallikarjun Ramachandra Yarajheri, a resident of Kannala village in Basavana Bagewadi taluk in the district. He was arrested on suspicion of raping and killing a girl recently.  During the questioning, however, Mallikarjun is said to have revealed that he used to attack single women or girls and rape them. Police officers say that there were old ladies among his victims.

The accused was taken into custody relating to the rape and murder under suspicious circumstances of a girl from Kannala village recently. Tippavva, the 14-year-old daughter of Shivakant Nagareddy from Kannala village, went missing all of a sudden. Eight days later, her lifeless body was found from a nearby well. Strong suspicions surrounded this death. During the investigation, police discovered that Mallikarjun dragged the girl who was going to her school, to a nearby gorge and raped her there. After that, he killed her by hitting her head and thigh with a wooden club. It is said that Mallikarjun confessed to the police that he thereafter threw the girl's body into a well located in a nearby farm.

Mallikarjun happens to be a cattle grazer by profession. He has been raping women from the village since long, but the villagers had not filed a police complaint about any of them perhaps for fear of social stigma. Mallikarjun told the police that he had even raped small children. Police circle inspector, Mahadeva Shirahatti, who has been investigating the cases involving this rapist, said that on being produced in the court, Mallikarjun has been remanded to judicial custody.