Cyberabad police has announced the arrests of three accused involved in the murder of nine persons, including two women, on the outskirts of Hyderabad in a span of one year. The fourth accused is absconding.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner S Prabhakar Reddy told a media conference on Monday evening: "The accused are migrant labourers and, being pathetic addicts to liquor, had committed these murders by smashing the heads of the victims with boulders; all for paltry amounts and to quench their thirst for liquor."

"As of now, that (sodomy) aspect has not come to our notice. Our investigation so far did not reveal anything about homosexuality. Only in the case of a woman, they raped and killed her. In the other cases, we have not come across sexual abuse angle," the commissioner asserted.

Giving details of the killings, Reddy said the accused had killed nine persons, including two women, between January 5, 2006 and January 4, 2007. While investigating a double murder that occurred on January 2 this year, the police came across a clue that the victims were last seen in the company of one of the accused near a wine shop.

"The police worked on that clue and took one of the accused into custody. The investigation revealed that the eight crimes have been committed by them, wherein nine people have been killed. It is really a pathetic story that all the victims were killed for paltry amounts. In none of the murders did they get more than Rs 600 and small items not highly valued," the commissioner pointed out.

"Their modus operandi was to go to toddy (country liquor) shops. Once the innocent victims are drunk, they would cajole them and then take them to isolated places and kill them with big boulders. Out of the eight crimes, four occurred in the limits of Shamshabad police station and three in Rajendranagar police station limits and one in Kothur police station limits in neighbouring Mahbubnagar district. In the last case, they killed a lady after committing rape," the commissioner added.

The police have arrested three accused: Nalubothula Ramulu (23) who worked as a labourer, Pakkiri Pavan (21), also a labourer, and Amarachinta Ravindar Reddy (28), a painter. The fourth accused person, Venkatesh alias Bihari Venkat, is absconding and efforts are on to nab him