A 40-year-old businessman Santosh and his sexagenarian mother Padma, hailing from Ramayampet of Medak district, ‘ended their lives’ by setting themselves afire in a lodge in Kamareddy, allegedly due to harassment by seven persons in their home town.
Based on two separate selfie video clips of the two victims, Kamareddy police registered a case of abetment to suicide against Ramayampet municipal chairman Jithender Goud and six others. While Kamareddy police are on the look-out for the accused who drove the mother and the son to suicide, tension prevailed at Ramayampet town when relatives, friends and locals staged protest demonstration after placing bodies of the victims before the house of Mr. Goud.
Police had tough time controlling the agitating crowd. Medak SP Rohini Priyadarshini turned up at the house of Mr. Goud, who locked the house and went away, and assured the protestors that she would take all steps to ensure the guilty were punished. Tempers ran high when local workers and leaders of different political parties joined the agitators and urged the police authorities to immediately arrest the accused in the case.
Kamareddy DSP Somanadham said a first information report (FIR), invoking Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of Indian Penal Code was issued against the seven persons who allegedly drove the two persons to suicide. The victims recorded selfie videos before resorting to the extreme step, having checked into a lodge in Kamareddy town.
Investigators believe the victims doused themselves in petrol and lighted a matchstick. As smoke emanated from the room, lodge workers grew suspicious and called in fire service personnel. By the time they managed to douse the blaze, the two victims were found dead with third degree burns.
After conducting post-mortem examinations, bodies were handed over to the family members of the victims who drove to Ramayampet and staged a sit in before the house of local municipal chairman Jitender Goud. Along with Mr. Goud, names of Tungaturthy Inspector Nagarjuna Goud (who earlier worked as Ramayampet inspector) and five others figured in the FIR.
In the video clips recorded by the victims, they stated that Goud and others harassed them for past several months over business and other matters. “I had sent letters to district officials, including Toopran DSP, explaining the harassment by these seven persons,” Santosh was seen saying in the video clip.
Toopran DSP Kiran Kumar said that Santosh did not meet him but a letter purportedly written by Santosh was received by him. “I assigned the task of probing into the matter to a SI who spoke with Santosh. But the latter did not turn up to give any details on the matter,” the DSP said.
(Roshini - Suicide Prevention Helpline: 040-66202000)
