Hyderabad, 11 July 

A 35-year-old man, an accused in a POCSO case, allegedly killed six people, including his two children and three members of the family that filed a complaint against him in neighbouring Rangareddy district, police said on Saturday.

The accused committed the murders at different places in Shabad mandal late on Friday night, they said.

P Rajkumar, a farmer, initially went to the house of theminor girl in Shabad town and killed her mother and maternal grandmother, who was asleep, Future City Police Commissioner Tarun Joshi told reporters. He then took the minor girl in a car to his native village of Dhaivalguda and stabbed her to death near a lake.

Rajkumar, subsequently, went to his house, which is about 250 meters from the lake, and killed his wife (in her 30s) and his two sons, aged four and one-and-a-half-year-old, who were all asleep, the Commissioner said.

The man was booked under POCSO Act for stalking and harassing the minor girl in May this year, based on the complaint filed by the girl's family. He had recently secured anticipatory bail in the case, police said. The accused used a sickle and a knife to stab the victims and slit their throats.

Immediately after the murders, the accused called his father and confessed to the crimes and told him that he was going to commit "suicide", police said, adding he then switched off the phone. The parents of the accused then reported the matter to the police.

Rajkumar fled the scene and remains absconding. The six bodies were sent to a hospital for post-mortem examination.

Seven teams were formed to nab the accused and they are searching for him, the Commissioner said adding "We will get (nab) him soon".

As per available information, the accused was alone while committing the crime (murders), he said. The exact reason for the killings is under investigation, the official said, adding once he is apprehended and interrogated the full picture would be known.

Investigators suspect a deep-seated grudge against the minor girl, but the motive behind killing his wife and two children is yet to be ascertained, police said. "As of now we don't know why he killed his own wife and children,” Joshi said.

The senior police official further said the family members of the accused stated that he was addicted to gambling and had taken loans, because of which he was mentally disturbed. The accused stalked the minor girl while she was returning home from college and had been harassing her to accept his proposal, police said.

He was booked under Sections 11 and 12 of the Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and relevant sections of the BNS.

After the POCSO case was registered, the accused had gone absconding from his village for two weeks and had subsequently filed an anticipatory bail in a court. As the offence carries a punishment of less than seven years, he was released on a personal bond, the Commissioner said.

The accused had then appeared before the police for counselling.

The family members and relatives of the minor girl and some locals held a protest on Saturday by squatting on the road in Shabad and demanded that the accused be killed in an encounter. Two cases were registered in connection with the murders.