Hyderabad, March 04: In yet another case of custodial death, a suspect in a murder case was found dead in Miyapur police station under the Cyberabad Commissionerate on Wednesday. Though police claimed the suspect hanged himself in the bathroom, there were rumours that the person died due to thrashing by police. The person died while undergoing treatment.
According to police, the deceased Mekala Anjaiah (37) was taken into custody for questioning in a murder case.
He was found hanging from the iron grills of the ventilator in the toilet yesterday morning.
A constable immediately noticed the incident and police shifted him to a nearby hospital where he died while undergoing treatment. Anjaiah is a native of Faziabad in Medak district and he was married to a woman hailing from Isnapur.
“We had picked up Anjaiah for questioning in the missing case of a weigh-bridge operator, 50-year-old Sanganna, a resident of Madinaguda.
Sanganna was missing since January 25 and his wife, Kamsamma lodged a complaint two days later,” Kukatpally assistant commissioner of police T Sarath Babu said.
Interestingly, both Sanganna and Anjaiah had married women hailing from Isnapur and recently developed friendship. Anjaiah was a car driver who bought a second hand car and was facing financial problems. Police said Anjaiah and his assistant, Srinu had killed Sanganna.
“On January 25, the trio consumed liquor at Srinu’s house at Pati village in Patancheru.
Anjaiah saw that Sanganna was in possession of quite a large amount of money. Anjaiah and Srinu then threw Sanganna into a nala at Pati and threw boulders on him killing him on the spot. They took away nearly Rs.45,000 from the deceased,” the ACP said.
Police reportedly tracked down mobile call details of Sanganna and narrowed down on Anjaiah. Anjaiah was picked up two days back and allegedly beaten up by police. “Anjaiah confessed to have committed the murder and even took us to the place where the body was dumped,” Sarath Babu said.
When asked why Anjaiah committed suicide, the Sarath Babu said the deceased was fearing he would face the wrath of Isnapur locals for killing a fellow villager.
“He was very much fearful of fellow villagers beating him up for killing Sanganna,” the ACP said.
Miyapur inspector S Bheem Reddy said Anjaiah was not beaten up in custody and the latter had voluntarily confessed to have committed the crime. Police registered a case under Section 176 (custodial death) and are investigating. A magisterial inquiry would be conducted into the incident, police said.
–IANS