A police Sub-Inspector was placed under suspension and two Circle Inspectors were served show-cause notices in connection with the ongoing investigation into the sensational Naresh-Swathi tragic love story wherein Swathi reportedly committed suicide on May 16 while
Naresh was brutally murdered on May 1 in what being considered an honour killing.
It may be recalled here that the love story of the two collegemates - Naresh, a Rajaka youth, and Swathi, a Reddy girl of Bhongir in Nalgonda district - which had all the ingredients of a Tollywood crime thriller, had culminated in a tragedy. The two had eloped and gotten married sometime back, and had settled in Mumbai. However, they were stated to have been lured to return by Swathi's father with a promise to solemnize their marriage on a grand scale.
However, when the couple reached Bhongir from Mumbai on May 1, Swathi was stated to have been taken away by her father while Naresh went missing mysteriously. Even as Naresh's family and some dalit organizations expressed apprehensions about a threat to the boy's life and complained to the police in this regard, Swathi reportedly committed suicide on May 16 at her parents' house.
The family members and dalit organizations moved a habeas corpus petition in the Hyderabad High Court in which the complicity of the police in the case was alleged. The High Court admitted the petition and set a deadline of June 1 for the police to produce Naresh in court or submit an inquiry report. In a swift development after the court's intervention, the police claimed to have solved the mystery behind the disappearance of Naresh by stating that he was murdered by Swathi's father Srinivas Reddy in what they claimed was a case of honour killing.
The police, who arrested Srinivas Reddy and his nephew Sathi Reddy in this connection, also alleged that after murdering Naresh, the duo had burnt his body in the fields and then threw the ashes in the river Musi.
As directed by the High Court, the police submitted an inquiry report in the court today whereupon the court expressed concern over the increasing number of cases of honour killings of late in the two Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It directed the district court concerned to take up the case and deal with it.
Meanwhile, a Sub-Inspector of police was placed under suspension and two Circle Inspectors were issued show cause notices based on allegations of their complicity in the case. Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwath issued orders suspending Sub-Inspector Sivanaga Prasad of the Atmakur police station, and issued show-cause notices to the Circle Inspectors of Bhongir and Ramannapet.
Investigations are going on regarding the role played by the police in the case, to establish if they had colluded with the accused persons. In this connection, the alleged taped conversation of a police officer with Swathi, wherein she was allegedly threatened, is being examined by forensic experts. The investigation is trying to ascertain whether Swathi's was a case of suicide or murder.