The police concluded that Sirisha committed suicide, after an attempt by the SI of the Kuknoor police station, Prabhakar Reddy, to sexually assault her.
The mystery surrounding the death of beautician Vijayalakshmi alias Sirisha in a photo studio on Tuesday (June 13) was resolved, with the police concluding that she had committed suicide by hanging as per the evidence in the post-mortem examination.
For those who came in late, Sirisha, who was working as a beautician-cum-HR-manager in R J Photo Studio at Shaikpet, was residing in Krishna Nagar with her husband, a chef, and daughter. She was reportedly found hanging by her boss and studio owner Rajeev Kumar in the bedroom of the studio in the early hours of June 13.
In a seemingly unrelated incident, Sub-Inspector P Prabhakar Reddy of the Kuknoorpally police station in Siddipet district committed suicide by shooting himself with his service revolver in the police quarters on the morning on Wednesday (June 14).
However, the two suicides took a filmi twist after it was found that there was a connection between the deaths of the beautician and the Sub-Inspector. The mystery was solved by the police based on the inputs gathered by interrogating the studio owner Rajeev Kumar and his friend Sravan Kumar, and from the evidence provided by the various scientific examinations.
Addressing a media conference, City Commissioner of Police Mahender Reddy on Friday revealed that it had now been concluded by the investigating officers that Sirisha's death had occurred due to hanging. In other words she had committed suicide. Likewise, SI Prabhakar Reddy's death too was a clear case of suicide, and the reason behind his killing himself seemed to be "panic".
As per the details provided by the Commissioner, Rajeev Kumar came into contact with Sirisha four years back through Facebook. She began working with him in the studio, and during the course of time they turned intimate and developed a physical relationship. Rajeev however developed a friendship with another girl Tejaswini, working as HR manager in a software company in Bangalore.
Rajeev and Tejaswini decided to get married after she moved to Hyderabad from Bangalore a year back. Having come to know about Rajeev being close to Sirisha, Tejaswini started confronting and threatening Sirisha. Their fight even reached the Banjara Hills police station, and the police prodded them to resolve the issue amicably. But there seemed to have been no end to the catfight.
Rajeev wanted to resolve things quickly and at any cost since he was keen on marrying Tejaswini, and decided to end to the issue with the assistance of the police. Then came the entry of another character in the drama - Shravan, Rajeev's friend.
Since Shravan was also known to Sirisha for the past one year, he advised her to get the issue settled with using the good offices of his friend Prabhakar Reddy, SI of Kuknoorpally Police Station.
Having decided to seek the help of Reddy, Rajeev, Shravan and Sirisha proceeded to Kuknoorpally to meet him. They all started in Rajeev's car, and en route picked up liquor and some food and reached the quarters of the SI late in the night on January 12. The three men seemed to have talked and consumed liquor till the wee hours. After some time Rajeev, Sravan and the SI came out of the room to smoke and engaged in some hush talk. Sirisha heard something about Rajeev and Shravan leaving her back in the room and going out, upon SI Reddy's prodding them to visit a brothel nearby. Panicking, she messaged Rajeev on Whatsapp "not to leave me". The three men returned to the room and again consumed liquor. Some time later, Rajeev and Shravan went out leaving the SI and Sirisha in the room.
The climax seemed to have begun now. As per the information provided by Rajeev and Shravan to the police during the interrogation, they heard some screaming from the room and rushed inside. They reportedly found Sirisha pinned to a wall and screaming while the SI was trying to calm her down. When her screams did not subside even after Rajeev hitting her, she was forcibly put in the car to be brought back to the city.
According to the police, while returning Sirisha tried to jump out of the car but was dragged back inside by Shravan. Upon reaching the studio-cum-office, Sirisha ran inside a room and locked herself and hung herself from the ceiling fan. Shravan who was going back home returned upon being called by Rajeev, and they summoned an ambulance. The paramedics declared her dead, and the police were then informed in the early hours on June 13.
SI Prabhakar Reddy was stated have repeatedly messaged Rajeev to know whether they had all crossed his police station limits. When the news about Sirisha's death was telecast, Reddy reportedly contacted the Banjara Hills SI, who was his batchmate, to know the details about the investigations into Sirisha's death. At that time he was stated to have been asked inadvertently about him consuming liquor along with Sirisha and two others. A shocked Reddy was stated to have put down the phone. Later the news about him committing suicide with the service revolver came to light.
The Commissioner of Police, to various questions, informed that there was no evidence of any rape on Sirisha. However, he indicated that there might have been an attempt by the SI to sexually assault her. The investigations are still continuing and swabs from the vagina had been sent for forensic tests, he explained. He also said that Shravan was a "shady" character, and that he seemed to have had some bad intensions in the entire drama.