VIJAYAWADA: The number of a mobile phone discarded long ago provided clue to the city police to untangle the mystery behind the killing of newsreader Lakshmi Sujatha. But the investigation also became a little complicated because of the long list of calls made from, and received on, the two mobile phones used by the victim.

Gandla Chandrasekhar, alias Chandu, the prime accused, who checked into room number 307 of Vajram Lodge in Governorpet in the early hours of February 9, entered his address in the register as Ch. Madhu Kumar of Ramakrishna Nagar, Guntur. He also entered a mobile phone number used by Sujatha for some time but discarded later.

Primary investigation

During the primary investigation, the police found that the address was wrong but the number had been used by Sujatha till a year ago. The police veered round to the view that she might have known the offender. In the process of tracing out the accused, the police collected the call lists of two mobile phones used by Sujatha. She had the habit of using one phone for maintaining contact with relatives and another to talk to her friends.. The two phones were used for hundreds of incoming and outgoing calls. A few of these calls were of long duration. From this, we questioned nine persons who made calls to Sujatha and received from her. After questioning each of them, we zeroed in on Chandu's number," city Police Commissioner C.V. Anand told mediapersons on Wednesday. During the investigation, the police intensely questioned seven persons, including three youths from Gudivada, one from Amalapuram, two from the office of the FM radio channel that Sujatha worked for and one from Hyderabad. They also interrogated the husband of the victim's younger sister. "We found that Sujatha was talkative and used to be friendly with every one. Many of her acquaintances were under the impression that she was in love with them," Mr. Anand said.

The police found that the gold chain and ear-studs of Sujatha were mortgaged in a pawnbroker's shop in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad on February 11 for Rs. 4,000, exactly two days after her murder.

"The offenders tried to divert the attention of the police by disturbing the crime scene in the lodge room and by taking away Sujatha's luggage with them," Mr. Anand said.

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