Hyderabad: The ghastly murder of five-year-old Aurelia by a former security guard in one of Hyderabad’s plush gated communities has sent shockwaves through the city’s four lakh-plus residential clusters.
Aurelia, who used to reside with her parents Milton Fernandes Moses and Daisy Fernandes at Villa Orchids, was allegedly drowned by the suspect in a water sump in the clubhouse cellar on Saturday, Malkajgiri police commissioner Badugula Sumathi told a press conference held after the suspect was nabbed.
Police apprehended Vikram Kumar, a resident of Bihar’s Nalanda district, on Sunday thwarting his attempt to leave Hyderabad. Kumar allegedly confessed to the crime, stating it was part his plan to demand a ransom of Rs 20 lakh from her parents.
The police began investigating the case after Aurelia’s father, a senior research scientist at an agricultural firm, filed a police complaint at the Bollarum police station Saturday night. He registered a first information report (FIR) under Section 140 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), which deals with kidnapping for ransom.
B Sumathi said Vikram was dismissed from work five days before the incident “for poor conduct”. The police officer said “his motive was to make quick money”.
“In his admission, he confessed that he entered the gated community at 1840 hours on Saturday with the intention of kidnapping the girl. We will ensure he is produced in court at the earliest after the case is investigated thoroughly and justice is delivered,” Sumathi said.
What happened behind closed gates
On Saturday evening, just a day before the Navaratri festival began, Hyderabad and the residents of Villa Orchids at Kowkur were already in a festive mood. The ‘Bathukamma’ floral festival was already in full swing at the gated society, which houses 350 families.
At 6 pm, Aurelia, like other children, went down to the play area close to the clubhouse to watch the Bathukamma festival and then cycle, as she did every evening. Vikram Kumar lured the child into the isolated cellar, about 200 metre from the clubhouse and game zone, the police said.
Around 7:45 pm, as the family noticed her absence and began searching for her within the premises, Aurelia’s grandfather, a former serviceman, received a chilling phone call.
“Aapka beta mere paas hai. Mujhe 20 lakh chahiye (Your son is with me. I want 20 lakhs),” the accused is understood to have told him, according to police.
However, when Aurelia’s father returned home, the family realised that the caller was claiming to have the child with him, raising fears that she had been kidnapped.
The family immediately alerted their neighbours and other residents, who also joined in the hunt for Aurelia. All the while, the suspect continued to make extortion calls, intentionally keeping the family in the dark while the child had already been silenced.
‘Fastened cement bricks to abdomen to drown her’
In his statement to the police, Vikram confessed to leading the child to the basement, tying her hands and legs up, and even fastening two cement bricks to her abdomen so that she was weighted down as she was being submerged in the water sump.
Supriya, a fellow resident at Villa Orchids, was in tears as she described how she and her family went to the basement multiple times in search of the girl, but did not suspect she would be made to drown since the sump was fastened with a padlock.
In its briefing, the police said Vikram locked up the sump so that no one would suspect that the baby was inside. “He admitted to drowning her because he could not have left the gated community without being noticed by the surveillance cameras. Also, since the child had begun screaming, the accused pivoted his tactics.”
Just about an hour after he entered, Vikram fled the premises and made calls to Aurelia’s family after he reached Secunderabad, about 10 kilometers from Kowkur.
Having worked at Villa Orchids, the perpetrator knew the community’s blind spots, the child’s daily routine, and the structural layouts of the clubhouse cellar, the police said.
However, the police, which reached the premises soon after the FIR was lodged, launched a manhunt to trace both the victim and the accused. About 10 teams were formed, and a massive search utilising CCTV networks and drone cameras eventually tracked her bicycle.
“Once we found her bicycle in the basement, we suspected that she would have drowned and broke open the lock to find the baby girl. The scene was examined, and scientific and forensic investigations were initiated to ascertain the circumstances surrounding her death and establish the sequence of events,” the police said, recounting Saturday’s events.
Tracing the calls and the network, other teams of police nabbed the accused from close to the Secunderabad railway. The police detained all the other security guards (about 10) as well at Villa Orchids to verify their employment particulars and ascertain if any of them was complicit.
The police have also filed a case of negligence against the security agency that provided the manpower to guard the gated community.
Fright and fury
This tragic incident has raised serious public concern and highlights that gated communities cannot rely solely on access control and security personnel for safety.
At least 100 residents of Villa Orchids gheraoed the Malkajgiri North Zone Police Commissionerate, shouting slogans and demanding that Vikram be hanged.
Grieving residents held posters and placards that said, “Justice for Baby Aurelia, and ‘No Mercy for Cruelty”.
The angry and bereaved residents and family members of the child demanded stringent laws to ensure that agencies provide all information about workers’ antecedents before deploying them at the worksite.
The Malkajgiri police urged all Resident Welfare Associations and Societies (RWAS), apartment associations, and residents to participate in the Mee Suraksha Helpers Verification Initiative and Nenu Saitham 2.0 – CCTV Surveillance Programme.
“These awareness meetings are being conducted across residential communities to emphasise background verification and encourage the registration of domestic helpers, security personnel and watchmen to strengthen residential safety,” the police said.
“Baby Aurelia was in PP2. I am her teacher, and I could not bear to see the little child lying in state,” the child’s teacher said. Others tearfully recounted how they had known the child since she was an infant.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)