VIJAYAWADA: The case of a beautician, Pilli Padma, being brutally tortured at Hanuman Junction a couple of days ago took a new twist on Monday. The body of main accused and her live-in partner Nutan Kumar was found on the railway tracks in Guntur district on Sunday, the day after he allegedly tied the Padma and inflicted ghastly injuries on her. After his death, police seemed to have concluded that the case was as good as closed.
But Nutan’s relatives and friends expressed suspicion that a third person was behind the crime and that Nutan’s was not a case of suicide at all. They told the Hanuman Junction Police that the third person who came between the two live-in partners must have killed Nutan to save himself from being dragged into the case. According to the sources, Padma was reportedly in a relationship with the third person, whose name starts with the letter ‘S’, for the past one year. When Nutan came to know about the issue, he reportedly raised serious objections and also warned her against meeting the man.
Despite his warnings, she continued to stay in touch with the third person and that made Nutan develop a grudge against her. “Nobody knows about the secret relationship with the third person. To project the incident in such a way that Padma was attacked by her husband Suryanarayana, Nutan inscribed letter ‘S’ on her forehead,” said sources. Investigation revealed that Nutan administered sedatives to Padma before attacking her with blades. “Luckily, they (sedatives) helped her survive for hours despite bleeding profusely from her wounds on both hands. But she slipped into a coma,” said Hanuman Junction sub-inspector P Satish.
The brutal attack on Padma came to light when the victim’s former husband Pilli Suryanarayana found her lying in a pool of blood and with both her legs tied at her residence at Bapulapadu village of Hanuman Junction on Saturday morning. When Padma did not respond to her younger daughter’s repeated phone calls on Friday, both the girl and Suryanaraya went to Bapulapadu and found her in a critical condition.
Both Suryanarayana and Padma got married in 2006 and separated four years ago.