VIJAYAWADA:Mystery shrouds the death of 16-year-old Intermediate student Narra Akhil Tej Kumar Reddy, whose body was found hanging from a pillar of his hostel room in the Narayana Junior College at Nidamanur, near here, on Friday. His hostelmates rushed him to a nearby hostel but the doctors there declared that he was ‘brought dead’.
Narra Singa Reddy, father of the deceased, who is a school teacher in Bestwaripet in Ongole, rushed to Vijayawada on learning about his son’s alleged suicide and lodged a complaint with the police raising several doubts over the incident.
Contesting the police claim that his son had committed suicide, Narra Singa Reddy cited several ‘circumstantial evidences’ which led to his belief that it was not so.
For one, Singa Reddy said that he was informed that his son’s legs were touching the ground, suggesting that an attempt was made to make it look like an act of suicide. “My son was about 5 ft 6 inches tall and I was told when the body was found, its feet were touching the floor,” he said.
Another aspect of the death that did not fit the suicide theory, according to him, was that the hostel room was locked from outside, which suggested that after his son’s death someone had left the room locking the door after him.
The boy’s father was emphatic that there were no domestic issues that might have caused grief and depression in his son forcing him to commit suicide. “He was a very brilliant student and he was never given to any bouts of depression. There were no problems either financial or otherwise at home,” Singa Reddy added.
He also doubted the theory that the boy could have committed suicide due to sickness. “When I made inquiries I was told that my son had suffered bouts of breathlessness on Thursday and again on Friday. If any student falls sick, the management of the college informs the parents. But in my son’s case, though he is said to have fallen ill twice, I was not informed, which is arousing my suspicions,” he added.
The police, however, firmly believe that it is a case of suicide. “It is a straight case of suicide. The boy was suffering from ill health. This apart, academic stress also may have forced him to end his life,” Patamata Inspector K Damodar Rao said.