Vizag shivers with 20 murders in 6 months

VISAKHAPATNAM: Incidents of murder, gang rivalry, extortion, rape, cyber crime and burglary in the district have been on the rise in the past few months.After Hyderabad and Vijayawada in the state, Visakhapatnam is slowly emerging the crime city. If the latest cases (murder, cyber crime, chain and purse snatching, gun use and thievery) are anything to go by, the city is likely to emerge as the next crime capital of the state.In this year so far around 20 murder cases have been registered in the district, 10 of them in the city limits. In some cases police struggle to trace the culprits even after strong efforts. Though police term the crimes as personal and have nothing to do with rowdyism, there is uneasiness among residents as they feel some of these offences were committed more due to petty reasons.A pregnant woman and third-year engineering student, Duvvi Krishnaveni (21), was brutally killed by her husband Ch Ravi Kumar in the busy Maddilapalem area by slitting her throat with a knife on March 4.Even before the shock waves generated by the murder died down, an Intermediate first-year student, R Aswani Mrudula (16), was killed in suspicious circumstances in her flat at Dondaparthy on March 29.She was found in a pool of blood in the bathroom with her throat slit open.In a spine-chilling incident at R.Dumbriguda village in Arakuvalley mandal in the district on April 20, school teacher L Sundaramma was brutally murdered in front of her classroom while her students watched in horror. T Subba Rao of Korra in Dumbriguda mandal had been pestering Sundaramma (28), who taught at Vidya Vikasa Kendram, to marry him. Spurned by her repeatedly, he slit her throat.