32-year-old criminal turns 'teenager', goes scot-free

Stars don't age. But criminals seem to be going a step further -- rather back, to their teenage!

''Commit a murder at 32, slash your age, and go scot-free.'' This formula worked wonders for Medipalli Vasanth Kumar.

But his vindictive outlook and political connections -- his sister Sunitha is a Telugu Desam zilla parishad member -- played villain. And the state government has been forced to order an inquiry on how Kumar became a ''minor'' and got a transfer to Borstal School, a juvenile home in Nizamabad.

The incident seems to have occurred some six months back, but came to light only recently when a leader presented ''facts'', proving that Kumar is not a minor, to the home ministry.

Kumar was convicted by the Andhra Pradesh high court in June 1996 for murdering Shanta Kumar, a sarpanch of Karankote village in Tandur mandal of Ranga Reddy district, over a mine lease dispute in November 1990. But a government order, passed following an appeal made by Sunita that her brother was a minor, transferred him to the juvenile home.

Escaping from the home, Kumar reached his native Karankote village, and started gunning for his rivals, when his opponents started baying for his blood. Whether the criminal will ''grow'' big enough for a jail sentence would depend on the enquiry committee's report.