VIJAYAWADA: Police unravelled the mystery over the death of 21-year-old P Tejaswini at Gudur on Thursday. Initially, it was reported that she died by suicide. Later, her parents lodged a complaint with the police alleging that she was murdered by a stalker for refusing his marriage proposal. On Friday, the police made it clear that it was a case of murder. Now, they are waiting for the postmortem report of the victim to proceed further in the case. However, the accused has claimed innocence.
Tejaswini and G Venkateswarlu, the accused, were found lying unconscious at the former’s house in Gudur. Both were shifted to the government hospital where the girl was declared brought dead. Venkateswarlu was shifted to Nellore GGH for better treatment. The girl was doing her final year BTech in a private college near Gudur. Her parents Sudhakar and Saritha are teachers.
Chenchu Krishnaiah, father of Venkateswarlu, is a colleague of Sudhakar. The girl and the accused, a software professional working in Bengaluru, were said to be close. She broke up with him a year ago as her parents opposed any alliance between them. Tejaswini who had distanced her self from Venkateswarlu, even changed her mobile phone number to avoid him. Keeping a grudge against her, Venkateswaralu visited her house on Thursday when she was with her younger brother Karthik. The boy immediately informed the matter to their parents. Sudhakar dialled 100 and a police team, led by SI D Adilakshmi, rushed to the house of Tejaswini and found the duo lying unconscious.
Team formed to probe into the issue: Gudur DSP
“I got a phone call from my son around 11.45 am that my daughter was being harassed by a stalker. I dialled 100 and also phoned my neighbours. Both police and neighbours rushed to the house,” Sudhakar said and added that Venkateswaralu, along with his friends murdered his daughter in a pre-planned manner. However, the accused claimed that they decided to end their lives as her parents were against the marriage alliance. “I did not kill Tejaswini,” Venkateswaralu asserted.
Gudur DSP B Rajagopal Reddy said, “Based on a complaint lodged by victim’s parents, a police team led by Gudur Rural CI Srinivasulu Reddy started investigation. They are on the lookout for Venkateswaralu’s friends, who are absconding.” Home Minister M Sucharitha directed Nellore police to take stern action against the accused.