Published Sep 20, 2026 | 3:17 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 20, 2026 | 3:17 PM
Sexual Harassment Representational Image
Synopsis: Six days after eight people were booked for the sexual assault of a minor in Alwal, Secunderabad, Malkajgiri police have not made a formal statement on the case. The silence has allowed unofficial versions of the case to circulate. While the POCSO Act bars the publication of any detail that could identify a child survivor, BRS General Secretary RS Praveen Kumar asked why the police had not even publicly acknowledged that a crime had taken place.
Last week, Alwal police, under the jurisdiction of the Malkajgiri Commissionerate in Secunderabad, Telangana, registered a case against nine persons for allegedly sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl.
The survivor, an Intermediate student, was allegedly raped by multiple men over four days, according to the police. She has also told the police that she was also subjected to sexual abuse by other men for more than a year.
It is routine for the police in Telangana to address the media in cases involving serious offences. The Malkajgiri Commissionerate recently held a press conference on the Nagole murder, with Commissioner of Police B Sumathi touting the police’s success in cracking the case within 24 hours.
It has been six days since the Alwal case was registered, but the police have yet to publicly acknowledge any progress.
Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act bars the publication of any detail that could identify a child survivor. But the lack of an official account from the police initially led to multiple unofficial versions of events circulating and spreading misinformation.
BRS General Secretary RS Praveen Kumar questioned why the police had not even publicly acknowledged that a crime had taken place.
“Just the other day, within Alwal Police Station’s limits under this Malkajgiri Commissionerate, a sixteen-year-old (sic) minor girl was reportedly raped repeatedly. None of us has asked for that girl’s details – no one with any decency in a civilised society would. But why be so secretive just about confirming whether a crime took place at all?” he asked.
“Who exactly have they arrested? Who’s in their gang? Where is their ganja coming from? How are they building these contacts on Instagram? How many girls have these crooks trapped in their net? Shouldn’t the public know all of this too?”
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Gopala Krishna Murthy, Begumpet Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), told South First that the survivor left home on 8 September and came into contact with a stranger, the prime accused in the case, when she was near Bolarum railway station.
He then introduced her to a friend, and the two men allegedly offered her marijuana and sexually assaulted her when she was intoxicated.
The accused then took the survivor to a private lodge on the outskirts of the City, and held her there for 4 days, during which they raped her multiple times, along with 2 other men. Over the next few days, 2 more men were allegedly involved in assaulting the survivor.
Police have identified a total of 6 people involved in the offence, and said the men abused drugs and forced the girl to do the same. Reports suggest the survivor attempted to escape multiple times but was brought back by the main suspect.
She finally escaped and returned home on 11 September, and shared the gruesome details with her parents. A complaint was lodged at the Alwal police station the next day, and the police began investigating, ACP said.
All six men have been booked under the POCSO Act and other relevant sections of BNS. Police arrested 5 of them, but one remains absconding. Additionally, the manager of the lodge where the assault took place was also booked and arrested, police said.
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The survivor has also revealed details of continued sexual harassment from three other men since 2025.
She was befriended by a man from the neighbourhood where she lived with her family, while studying in Class X. He reportedly offered her marijuana in the form of candy and sexually assaulted her, police said.
Another person, whom she met through Instagram and who is acquainted with the first accused, also assaulted her, and a third accused tried to kiss her at an annual day function forcibly, the complainant alleged.
The police have included all three members in the FIR and took them into custody, but are investigating the case separately from the more recent offences.
The police said they will approach the Court to seek custody of the detainees on Monday. Several crucial details, including the names and ages of the accused and the sections invoked in the FIR, still remain unanswered.
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The official silence on the Alwal case follows a public ire against the Telangana police for lapses in investigation of a string of high-profile POCSO cases.
The most prominent of those cases, involving Bandi Sai Bageerath, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, was handled by the same Malkajgiri Commissionerate.
Bageerath evaded arrest for over a week before the High Court denied him anticipatory bail.
The Pet Basheerabad police initially invoked the bailable provisions of the POCSO Act. The charges were upgraded to aggravated penetrative sexual assault much later, after much public anger.
Similar lapses were seen under the Rangareddy district or the Future City Commissionerate, where a POCSO accused from Shabad murdered the victim, her family members, and his own family, while he was out on bail.
In another POCSO case from the Commissionerate, the accused walked free in June 2026, despite the DNA test confirming he fathered the child of the victim who had committed suicide, as the case collapsed due to procedural lapses by the investigating officer and witnesses turning hostile.
Opposition parties in Telangana have also alleged that crime has been rising in the State.
AIMIM MLA Ahmed Bin Abdullah Balala, during his address at the Assembly cited the recent knife attack on a father and son duo in Old City as one of the examples of the collapsing law and order in the state.
BRS working President KT Rama Rao, meanwhile, came down hard on the Telangana police in a recent X post, saying impunity and arrogance are now their trademark. He alleged that “even when law and order are in the gutters, the police are busy playing political games.”
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
