Chhattisgarh: Drunken ‘confession’ to friend lands hearing-impaired man in police net for 2 murders

According to police, Kondah allegedly murdered a 36-year-old mentally ill woman on May 29, 2020 from the village. Her body was found near a tree around 100 metres from her house.

Kondah used to allegedly sexually assault the woman, and police said he killed her in a fit of rage by hitting her on the head with a stick after she refused sexual demands from him. He then tried to hang her from a tree to make it look like a suicide, but a murder case was filed, police said. However, the case then went cold.

Nearly three years later, on March 13, police found the body of a 56-year-old woman from the same village, lying by a pond near her house. She, too, had suffered head injuries, and a case of murder was registered against unknown persons.

Around a month later, according to police, a drunk Kondah told a friend through sign language that he had murdered the 56-year-old. This led to police being informed about the incident.

Later, when Kishore Wasnik took charge as Deputy Superintendent of Police and sifted through case papers of unsolved murders, he came across the two murder cases that had similarities.

“In both cases, the women lived alone for months as their family members travelled for work purposes. Also, both women lived in two corners of the village in secluded areas. The way the murders were committed had similarities, like both being struck on the head and their bodies being dragged out of their homes,” Wasnik said.

The officer said after learning that Kondah was a suspect in the second murder, he started looking for a sign language expert to question him. “We were finding it difficult to get a sign language expert, but recently, we found one from Madhya Pradesh who questioned Kondah,” he said.

“Konda then confessed to the crime, following which we arrested him on September 6. In both cases, the accused attacked the women after they refused his demand for sex,” Wasnik said.