Gangster’s kin allege murder in Andhra Pradesh
KADAPA: Crying foul over the death of notorious criminal Sunil Kumar, his sister Jayasri and father Venkataramana accused the police of murdering him and depicting it as a suicide. They demanded an in depth probe into the death of Sunil to ascertain the facts.
Sunil Kumar, accused in 19 criminal cases, including murder, kidnap and extortion, was found hanging in the bathroom of his high-security cell in the Central Jail at around 8 pm on Friday.
According to the jail officials, he hanged himself from a fan holder in the bathroom using a bedsheet and was found by a sentry. He was declared brought dead when he was taken to RIMS Hospital.
On Saturday, Sunil’s father and sister, who came to take his body after postmortem, said Sunil might be a criminal, but police had harassed and even threatened them. “They even threatened to ruin my life,” Jayasri alleged. They said they were intensely interrogated at Yerraguntla after the gangster’s escape. Both the father and daughter said they had not seen Sunil for the past five years and now they saw his lifeless body.
Meanwhile, Kadapa RDO Devendra Reddy has started a magisterial inquiry into the incident. He examined the body of Sunil in the mortuary at RIMS. Speaking on the occasion, he said there were no external injuries and only marks left by the rope used for hanging.
On the other hand, district Civil Rights Society vice-president C Venkateswarlu expressed doubts over suicide tale being told by police. “Providing security to the accused in judicial custody is the duty of the police. How can they allow him to die? There seems to be lapses in the Central Jail. To bring out the facts, a judicial probe is only way,” he said.
However, the police maintained that there was no foul play. “He committed suicide,” DSP Sk Masum Basha said. The gangster, who escaped from police custody while being brought to Kadapa jail from Kurnool after a court hearing on March 27, was caught in Bengaluru on April 4 and brought to Kadapa on April 5.