A 26-year-old Dalit youth, Veedhi Subramanyam, died under mysterious circumstances here in the early hours of Friday.
The youth’s body was reportedly dumped at his residence in Ramaraopet allegedly by YSR Congress Party MLC Ananta Satya Udaya Bhaskar in his car at around 2.30 a.m. However, the youth’s family refused to receive the body.
Later, the MLC allegedly left the body in his car and left the residence of the deceased in another vehicle. The youth, who was working as a driver for the MLC for five years, reportedly quit the job recently.
According to the youth’s family, the MLC reportedly asked Subramanyam to meet him in Kakinada on Thursday night.
A few hours later, his family was allegedly told over phone by the MLC that Subramanyam had met with an accident at Nagamalli Thota junction in the city. When the family members rushed to the spot, nobody was there, leading to suspicion over the nature of death.
At around 10.30 p.m. on Thursday, Mr. Udaya Bhaskar picked up Subramanyam in his car and handed over the body to the family of the youth stating that he was killed in a road accident, M. Ambika Prasad, DSP Special Branch, said.
A case of unnatural death under IPC Section 174 had been registered at the Sarpavaram police station, based on a written complaint by the victim’s family that alleged the role of Mr. Udaya Bhaskar in the death. Investigation is on, Mr. Prasad added.
Post-mortem
The youth’s body was shifted from his residence to the GGH-Kakinada in the afternoon amid huge protests across the city on the nature of the death.
The family members, including his pregnant wife, did not give their consent to conduct post-mortem by 6 p.m., which is deadline to conduct the post-mortem. They demanded that the police register a case against Mr. Udaya Bhaskar and arrest him to proceed with the further investigation and post-mortem.
The police said the post-mortem could not be conducted on Friday as the victim’s family did not cooperate for the inquest procedure and documentation at the Government General Hospital.
Protests
Former Telugu Desam Party MLA from Kakinada Vanamadi Kondababu, Peddapuram MLA N. Chinna Rajappa and the victim’s family members and various Dalit welfare associations staged a dharna in front of Zilla Parishad buildings and GGH-Kakinada, demanding the immediate arrest of the MLC.
The protesters attempted to disrupt the general body meeting of the Zilla Parishad, which the MLC skipped on Friday. “Sand and water were found on the body which was brought by Mr. Udaya Bhaskar. The case should be thoroughly investigated”, demanded Mr. Kondababu.
