Bodies of five relatives found; suicide suspected

Hyderabad:  Five persons – a married couple, their son and two relatives – were found dead under suspicious circumstances on the city’s outskirts today even as police suspect they might have committed suicide.

“Three bodies – two of women and one of a teenage girl – were found in bushes in Shankarpalli area, while bodies of a man, and a boy, aged around 10, were found in a car some 2 km away,” said Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sandeep Shandilya. The commissioner, along with other senior police officials, visited the scene upon getting the information.

“A police team went to the spot and noticed insecticide smell emanating from here (the bushes),” said Shandilya. “It seemed somebody dropped them (the three deceased) there. A car was found at a distance of 2 km from the bushes, where bodies of a man and a boy were found inside the vehicle,” Shandilya said. Insecticide odour was also emanating from inside the car, he said.

Last evening, a complaint about five members of two related families going missing was lodged with the Ameenpur police station in neighbouring Sanga Reddy district. After verification by relatives, the bodies were identified as those of Prabhakar Reddy (30), his wife Madhavi (26), and their son. The other two bodies were those of Reddy’s elder sister Lakshmi (42) and her teenage daughter, an official who is part of the investigation said.

“We are verifying how the incident happened…prima facie it appears suicide. However, whether they all consumed insecticide and died will be known only after the post- mortem,” the official said. A relative of the deceased told the media the five had yesterday gone to see a waterfall. Reddy’s phone remained switched off since last evening after which a missing complaint was lodged.

“We don’t have any financial problems…we are unable to understand how it all happened…we don’t have any enemies,” he said.