The Hindu : Front Page : DCP (Crimes) to probe student's death

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Sunday, Feb 06, 2011
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DCP (Crimes) to probe student's death

Staff Reporter

Cyberabad police realise ‘investigation was mishandled'

Botcha had argued that it was accidental
Jagan alleged the student ended her life

HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad police has directed DCP (Crimes) Ramakrishnaiah to conduct a fresh probe into the suspicious death of G. Varalakshmi (18), a first-year B.Tech. student, on realising that the investigation was mishandled.

The cause of death had become controversial after Transport Minister Botcha Satyanarayana had strongly argued that it was accidental whereas rebel Congress leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy alleged the girl, a student of Vignan Engineering College, had ended her life as the management had insisted upon payment of tuition fee which her father could not afford.

Home Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy justified the fresh inquiry on the ground that the family of the girl changed its initial version of it being an accidental death and claimed that it was a suicide.

Official sources said the sub-inspector who recorded the statement of Varalakshmi did not visit the scene of incident – her house in Laskharguda village of Hayathnagar, on the day of the incident.

The investigators were misled as they relied more on her dying declaration and failed to thoroughly examine the scene or tried to ascertain with the Gandhi Hospital doctors who treated her whether the burns were due to gas or kerosene.

Police now say that kerosene bottles were found in a room where the girl set herself on fire. This is in sharp contrast to their earlier version that Varalakshmi sustained burns in the kitchen in an accident while she was lighting the gas stove to prepare tea which she maintained in her dying declaration. Her family members too vouched for it at the time of inquest and did not give an indication that she had committed suicide.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Ch.D. Tirumala Rao has now directed his investigators to visit the scene of incident immediately in all burning cases on receipt of information.

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