Hyderabad, Sept. 16 -- About six years ago in 2015, the Nakkalagandi project was launched under the stewardship of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao with an aim to supply drinking and irrigation water to the Deverakonda and Munugode Assemblies. One of the families which reportedly lost their lands was that of Chaithra's*, the six-year-old rape and murder victim who lost her life on September 9.

"We lost our agricultural land and our home due to the project and hence shifted to this colony. Kashtalu chala unde mundununche (There were many difficulties from before)," said Sharan*, the maternal grandfather of the now deceased six-year-old child.

As fate would have it, the loss of land and the shifting was followed by the loss of their chi...