Police unravel mystery behind double suicide

​Hyderabad: Putting an end to various theories making rounds, the Hyderabad police on Friday claimed that makeup artist A Vijayalakshmi aka Sirisha hanged herself to death, confirming it was a suicide. However, police arrested her employer Vallabhaneni Rajeev Kumar and friend B Sravan Kumar on charges of abetting her to commit suicide.

Addressing a media conference, city police commissioner M Mahender Reddy narrated the sequence of events that led to the tragic end of Sirisha. According to him, Rajeev had been running RJ Photography with his office-cum-residence at Rockside apartments in Shaikpet. Married to Satish Chandra 13 years ago, Sirisha had been working with Rajeev as makeup artist for four years. Over a period, they became too intimate.

A year ago, Rajeev met Tejaswini over facebook and decided to marry her. Three months ago, Tejaswini was transferred to Hyderabad when she got wind of the intimacy between Rajeev and Sirisha. Furious at this, she visited Rajeev’s office on May 30, abused Sirisha and humiliated her with indecent comments.

The dispute reached Banjara Hills police station where they were counseled and let off as they desired to settle the issue amicably.

However, Tejaswini continued to send insulting messages to Sirisha and threatened Rajeev with lodging a complaint. When it became unbearable, Sirisha sought help from a common friend Sravan Kumar. The latter spoke to his friend P Prabhakar Reddy, sub-inspector of Kuknoorpally, who was his friend.

Prabhakar Reddy referred them to meet Banjara Hills sub-inspector Harinder. The three went to Harinder at around 8 pm on June 12. After making enquiries, the SI asked them to come back after a week. But Sravan suggested that they should go and meet Prabhakar Reddy at Kuknoorpally for a quick solution.
The three left for Kuknoorpally in Rajeev’s car.

They bought whiskey and snacks on the way and reached Kuknoorpally by 11.30 pm. All the four consumed liquor at Prabhakar Reddy’s residential quarter. Over drinks, they explained the issue and the SI assured them that he would certainly sort out the problem.

After two rounds of drinks, the three men came out for a smoke when the SI suggested Rajeev and Sravan to go to a nearby prostitution den to enjoy with girls, an offer refused by Rajeev. Sirisha apparently overheard the conversation and sent whatsapp message along with her location to her husband, who noticed the message only the next morning. She also sent repeated messages to Rajeev not to leave her alone.

In the meantime, the three men went in again and after two more rounds of drinks, Rajeev and Sravan came out for smoke. Behind them, Prabhakar Reddy closed the door and after a while Sirisha began crying and shouting pleading with the SI to leave her.

Rajeev and Sravan heard Sirisha cry and rushed in to find her frightened and pleading with the SI saying she was not that kind of woman. Rajeev abused and slapped her apparently to calm her down. Sensing danger, Prabhakar Reddy asked them to leave at once.

On the way back, Sirisha tried to get out of the moving car due to which Rajeev hit her and dragged her by the hair when she tried to run away from the car. In the process, it appears she suffered a contusion on her head and injuries on neck, eye and lips.

As soon as they reached Rockside apartment, Sirisha rushed inside the flat and locked herself in a room. She did not answer when Rajeev and Sravan knocked on the door. Then Rajeev booked a cab for Sravan and when he was busy seeing him off, Sirisha made a video call apparently to inform Rajeev that she was committing suicide.

He did not answer the call. Instead, he called back a few minutes later and when there was no response, he went in the flat and had to break open the door as he did not find any response from Sirisha only to find her hanging.

He then called Sravan and asked him to come back. By the time Sravan came, Rajeev had cut the ‘dupatta’ with which Sirisha hanged herself and kept the body on the bed. The duo brought an ambulance from Apollo Hospital but the paramedics declared her dead following which Rajeev called Dial 100.

“Rajeev initially did not reveal about their visit to Kuknoorpally. We have gathered scientific and technical evidence to arrive at the conclusion. Though the accused claim that there was no sexual assault, we have also sent viscera samples to forensic science laboratory to cross check,” Mahender Reddy said.