College to slum, disappearance to death: The end of a Telangana love story

Their families claim they were unaware of the affair till continued on March 22 when Naresh and Swati decided to elope and get married. They went to Mumbai, stayed at a hotel near Gateway of India, and on March 25 registered their marriage. Soon after, Swati went to the Antop Hill Police Station and told the SHO she feared a threat to her life from her father, who would never accept her marriage to a lower-caste man. The SHO called Naresh’s father Venkatiah to the police station.

Naresh’s father Venkatiah and mother Indiramma. Sreenivas Janyala. Sreenivas Janyala

Venkatiah, 58, says he was afraid. “I went but refused to acknowledge their marriage because I knew they had made a mistake and he was going to be in big trouble. In our villages, caste is a big factor, and if a lower-caste man marries an upper-caste woman, it usually leads to trouble. I tried to convince police to summon the girl’s father and hand her over to him. But they said they are both adults and hence free to get married. I also tried to convince Swati to return to her parents’ house, but police pushed me out of the police station.”

A scared Venkatiah refused to let the couple stay at his one-room home in Sion Koliwada, and so they stayed at a cheap lodge nearby. The next day, Venkatiah says, he again tried to convince Swati to return. “She had called up her father and informed him about the marriage. I was already getting a lot of calls from the village to send the couple back. As Srinivas Reddy had lodged a missing complaint, police asked my brother and his sons to visit the Atmakur (M) police station, where they were questioned the entire day.”

Venkatiah claims the family was given to understand that his brother and nephews wouldn’t be released till Swati returned home. Swati finally buckled, and on March 28, Venkatiah says, he booked an SUV and they went to Ramannapet village, where his eldest daughter stayed and which was 20 km from Lingarajpalli. He says that Reddy took away Swati from Ramannapet police station, in the presence of Ramannapet Circle Inspector N Srinivas, while he returned home with Naresh.

Ramannapet Inspector N Srinivas acknowledges this, saying he only intervened because Venkatiah was scared. “Swati went with her father, Naresh with his father. That is all I facilitated.” Reddy says he sent Swati to stay with her married elder sister near Hyderabad, as people were talking. “Her second-year exams were starting from April 1. I told her to forget what had happened, spend a couple of days there, and come back and write the exams. On March 31, she disappeared again from her sister’s house,” he says.

Venkatiah admits that on April 1, Swati was back in Mumbai, and Naresh left with her. He says he does not know how she contacted Naresh because he did not have a mobile phone. The couple called him on April 2 to say they had found a place to live. “I still do not know where exactly they lived and how. Naresh was not working so I do not know how they survived.”

Exactly a month later, on May 1, Swati called up Venkatiah to tell him they were in a pathetic condition. “They had no money, no rations and the rent was due. She told me they were living in some slum in Vikhroli. I met them, purchased dry rations and gave them Rs 6,000 for rent and another Rs 1,500 for expenses. Next thing I know they had boarded a train to Hyderabad,” he says.

On May 2, Reddy says, Swati called him up and said they were coming home. She reportedly first asked him to pick her up from Nampally railway station in Hyderabad at 5 pm, but later changed that to 6 pm at Bhongir, 40 km from Lingarajpalli. Reddy says Naresh left for his grandparents’ place, while he got Swati home. He claims he counselled her that if she wanted to be with Naresh, he would accept their marriage. “But she told me Naresh had lied about working as a cab driver in Mumbai and earning Rs 30,000 per month. She grew up in this big house and there they were living in a slum. He was also a drunkard. Within a month, he had blown up all the money she had taken from home, and when they could not afford to live any longer like that, they came here.”

On May 11, after being unable to contact Naresh for nearly 10 days, Venkatiah lodged a missing person’s complaint at the Town Police Station in Bhongir. On May 15, after police called Reddy for questioning, Swati reportedly tried to commit suicide by consuming a tile-cleaning liquid. She was rushed to hospital and saved, and brought home the next day. At 4:30 am on May 17, she was found hanging in a bathroom. Reddy is tight-lipped about what happened between May 15 and 17, only saying, “It was 4:30 am, everyone was asleep.” Denying any family pressure on Swati, he says, “Why would we do anything to our daughter? I told her if it was her wish to be with Naresh, we will accept it. I also told her not to take any hasty decision. But she did… She is not there anymore to clarify the reasons.”

Incidentally, when first called to the Atmakur (M) police station after Swati’s death, Reddy didn’t produce any suicide note. He claimed to have found it later, after he was summoned again over Naresh’s disappearance. On May 18, Reddy revised his statement to police and alleged that Naresh and his family had harassed Swati for dowry, making her realise the mistake she had made and pushing her to suicide. “She took Rs 22,000 and 25 tolas of gold when she eloped. They asked her to bring as much dowry as we gave to our elder daughter,” he claims.

On May 19, Reddy circulated a video where Swati can be heard saying this, word for word. However, Venkatiah says that on March 28, when Swati and Naresh came back from Mumbai the first time, Swati had handed over Rs 9,000 and 19 tola gold jewellery to Reddy in front of Inspector Srinivas, saying it was all she had taken from home. Asked about this, the inspector says the two families had sorted this matter out among themselves.

Naresh’s uncle Dasrath has no doubt what has happened. It is impossible for any Reddy family in these parts to accept a boy from a backward class community, he says. “They are very powerful. Such a union is unthinkable.” Bhongir Town Police Station Inspector M Shankar, who is looking into Naresh’s disappearance, says, “His last location was traced to near L B Nagar near Hyderabad, when he took a call from his sister Neelima from Sholapur. He told her he would be reaching his uncle’s house in 10 minutes. After that his phone went dead.”