Hyderabad police have arrested a former security guard in connection with the murder of a five-year-old girl at Villa Orchids, a gated housing community in Kowkoor, after investigators found her body in a dark, under-construction cellar that had no CCTV coverage, according to police. The accused, identified as Vikram Kumar, was arrested late on Sunday night, more than 24 hours after the child was reported missing.
Malkajgiri police commissioner B Sumathi said Kumar allegedly targeted the girl after observing her routine and knowing that she played outside in the evenings. Police said he had worked as a security guard at the housing society for four months but was dismissed a day before the incident for poor conduct.
According to the police account, the girl had entered the clubhouse to watch Bathukamma celebrations before she was allegedly lured towards the cellar. Investigators said Kumar knew the location was secluded, dark and outside the coverage of the society’s CCTV network. The cellar was under construction and contained building material. Police allege that the accused used material found there to kill the child and then placed her body in a water sump.
Police said Kumar left the gated community through its main entrance after the alleged crime and called the child’s family to demand a ransom of Rs 20 lakh. He had allegedly obtained the family’s contact numbers from a register maintained at the society’s main gate. The girl’s father and grandfather agreed to pay on the condition that he make a WhatsApp video call to establish that she was alive, but police said he refused.
The family filed a complaint at about 9.45 pm on Saturday. Investigators reviewed footage from 130 CCTV cameras during the first four hours of the search and also checked locations linked to the accused’s mobile phone. Police later expanded the search to secluded sections within the housing community and found the child’s body in the cellar at about 2 am on Sunday.
Residents reportedly told police that Kumar had been seen smoking and drinking in the cellar a few days earlier. The incident was brought to the attention of his security agency, following which he was dismissed. Police said he returned to accommodation in Kowkoor shared with other security-agency employees after the alleged crime, then travelled through different modes of transport, including an autorickshaw, towards Patancheru, where he was arrested.
The case has also drawn attention to the security arrangements within the housing society. While the community had extensive CCTV coverage, police said the cellar remained an uncovered and rarely visited area. The investigation will now examine how access to the premises was managed after Kumar’s dismissal and whether the society’s security agency and residents’ association followed established procedures for removing former staff from the property.
Kumar was produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody. Police said they would seek his custody for further interrogation and were awaiting information from Nalanda police to verify his antecedents. The allegations remain subject to the ongoing investigation and court proceedings.
