HYDERABAD: The bodies of five members of a family were found under a bridge near the Outer Ring Road(ORR) at Narsingi in Cyberabad police limits on Tuesday. While the bodies of a man and a two-year-old child were found inside a locked car on the ORR, those of three women were found in bushes.
The deceased were identified as Patolla Prabhakar Reddy (35) , his 2-year-old son Vasisht, wife Madhavi (27), his aunt K Laxmi (42) and her daughter K Sindhuja (16). With no external injuries on any of the bodies, police were unsure about what had caused the deaths.
Based on the prima facie evidence, police believe that it could be a case of suicide pact. Soft drink bottles laced with poison were found at the site and the bodies also had froth in the mouth indicating that they had consumed poison.
On Tuesday morning, the Narsingi police received information from locals that three women were found dead in the bushes at Indrareddy Nagar. On reaching the spot, the police found a car about a kilometre away from the bushes in which two more bodies were found.
Empty water bottles, a pesticide bottle and a soft drink bottle were recovered from the scene.
After visiting the scene of offence, Madhapur DCP Viswa Prasad told newsmen: “It is understood that Prabhakar could have mixed poison in the eatables and gave it to others before consuming it. After the three women died, he dumped the bodies in the bushes and drove the car for some distance, but could not make it and he and his son died.” He said the samples of the recovered material are being sent to Forensic Science Laboratory.
On Monday morning, Prabhakar planned to visit Dindigul reservoir along with his wife and son, and aunt Laxmi and her daughter Sindhuja. Ravinder Reddy, husband of Laxmi, said, “At around 2 pm on Monday, Prabhakar informed me that they were returning from Dindi. When I called them at 6 pm, their phones were switched off. At around 9 pm, I informed police. On Tuesday, when my son Dinesh went to lodge a complaint, we were informed about the deaths,” he said and added, “Our families do not have any enmity or have any financial problems.”
According to information, Prabhakar had a franchise of a stockbroking company in city. Ravinder had invested `70 lakh in Laxmi’s name in his company. A month ago, he asked Prabhakar to return `40 lakh but the latter refused.