Hyderabad, April 19: In a scene out of the Shahrukh Khan film Baazigar, a young man unable to cope with the end of an affair allegedly pushed the girl to death from the fourth floor of the Lifestyle mall at Begumpet on Sunday morning.
He then jumped himself, and died instantaneously.
Sridevi (18), a salesgirl at a cosmetics counter in the mall, allegedly had had an affair with D Vinod (20), a sales executive with a private bank, but had moved on to another relationship. While police insisted it was a case of murder followed by suicide, eyewitness said it was a possible suicide pact.
They say Vinod jumped first and then Sridevi (in picture).
The thud of their bodies on the tiled floor of the atrium in front of the Music World stall broke the Sunday morning (8.45 am) calm at the mall.
Maintenance staff found the two lying in a pool of blood. Vinod died instantaneously while Sridevi died at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills. Police surmised it was a murder followed by suicide from a note found in Vinod’s trousers. Written in Hindi in the Roman script, it said he had been brushed off by Sridevi who had moved on to another person, Santosh.
Punjagutta police inspector M Malla Reddy told Express that Sridevi, hailing from Nepal, moved to Hyderabad in 1997 and lived with her sister Uma at Rehmatnagar, Ameerpet.
Family members said Vinod and Sridevi knew each other while living as neighbours in Punjagutta sometime back. They developed a relationship which ended when Sridevi found another man.
However, it is learnt that six months ago Sridevi’s family lodged a complaint against Vinod at the Punjagutta police station complaining of harassment. After this complaint, both families left Punjagutta, she to Rehmath Nagar and he to Jagadgirigutta. Sridevi’s co-workers at Lifestyle said Vinod used to turn up at the mall and harass her. “He was here yesterday and they had a heated argument,” said an employee at Lifestyle.
Vinod’s father Ravi told Express, “Vinod left the house at 6.30 a.m today telling us he had to attend a meeting. I asked him `what meeting do you have on Sunday?’ He did not give me a straight reply. We came to know about his death through news channels. We do not have any knowledge of his love affair with Sridevi.’’
–Agencies