Hyderabad, Jan. 7: Police on Saturday arrested a third person, Venkatesh of Bihar, for alleged involvement in nine sex-related murders over the period of a year on the city outskirts. Two members of the gang, Boya Ramulu and Pavan Yadav, had been taken into custody on Saturday. They had helped identify seven of the nine victims, police said. Two remain unidentified.

Police sources said the brother of Pavan Yadav turned him over the police. The police got its first definite clue in the form of an eyewitness who saw the alleged killers pick up their victims. Sources told this correspondent that Ramulu and Venkatesh had killed N. Jagan of Shamshabad on January 5, 2006, Vijay Kumar of Shamshabad on January 10, and Gopal of Maheswaram on May 3. Police said Jagan was murdered for the sake of Rs 30. His head was smashed with a boulder and the body thrown in the Kamaini Cheruvu of Shamshabad. Vijay Kumar was killed for Rs 100 and his body was thrown in a agriculture well.

Police said that together with Pavan Yadav the gang killed another five persons. The victims included Saritamma of Balanagar who was raped and whose throat was slit. The body was abandoned a railway track on August 10. Cousins Dastagir and Mohammed were killed on January 2 this year, and their bodies abandoned at a municipal dumping yard at Babul Reddy hillocks in Rajendranagar. Radhabai of Amangal in Mahbubnagar district was killed two days later at Timmapur. They lured her by offering her toddy.
Police on Saturday recovered the body of an unidentified person near Aramghar on Saturday. The identity of yet another victim is yet to be established.

The breakthrough came with a clue on January 3 from eyewitness Mohammed Chand Pasha, the cousin of Dastagir and Mohammed who were killed on January 2. Chand Pasha told this correspondent that he had had liquor with Dastagir and Mohammed on January 2 at a shop at Udangadda crossroads. Pavan and another unidentified person, suspected to be Ramulu, were also drinking there. Chand said that Dastagir, Mohammed and Pavan were neighbours and knew each other. They accompanied Pavan after he told them about two sex workers. The three of them and the unidentified person left the place in an autorickshaw.

Chand said, “I came to know the next day that my cousins were murdered. The same evening police summoned me and I told them about Pavan.” Rajendrnagar police contacted Pavan’s brother Mallesh Yadav. Mallesh told this newspaper that he handed over his brother to the police on the night of January 3. “When I came to know that my brother was involved in a murder, I was shocked but kept my nerves,” Mallesh said. Assistant commissioner of police, Rajendrnagar, Mahipal Reddy said revealing more information could hamper investigations. He said police had definite clues on the murder of Mohammed and Dastagir and was working on it.