Telangana honour killing: Charred body of missing youth Naresh found

HYDERABAD: The mysterious missing case of a youngster from Pallerla village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district ended on a tragic note when the police found the mortal remains of Naresh in the agriculture fields belonging to Swathi’s family at Lingarajupalli on Saturday.

The honour killing took curious turns before the police speeded up the investigation after the intervention of the High Court and taking into custody the killers.

Naresh, a BC and of Pallerla village and Swathi, who hailed from Reddy community, met through Facebook and  fell in love when Swathi was studying at a college at Valigonda in Nalgonda district. As she belonged to an upper caste and her father would have not approved, the couple eloped to Mumbai and got married there.

Swathi’s father contacted her and invited them to come home with a promise to re-perform their marriage in a grand manner. Convinced, the couple landed in Hyderabad on May 2 and reached Bhongir. Swathi went along with her father and Naresh went to LB Nagar and since then he went missing.  

Though it was yet to be investigated how Naresh reached Lingarajupalli village, Srinivas Reddy claimed that Naresh  was spotted in the village moving suspiciously along with another person. Srinivas Reddy and his cousin Sathi Reddy attacked Naresh with iron rods and burnt the body and threw the mortal remains in Musi river.

After 15 days of Naresh’s death, Swathi also allegedly committed suicide by hanging in the bathroom of her house at Lingarajupalli, which is exactly 2 km away from Pallerla village, where Naresh used to stay with his paternal grandmother. Srinivas Reddy performed Swathi’s last rites at the same place where Naresh was burnt. 

However, police on Saturday recovered some traces of mortal remains, ash and other articles from the spot.Though Srinivas Reddy allegedly killed Naresh as he was of a lower caste and married his daughter against his will, he told police that he murdered Naresh for harassing his daughter for additional dowry. Naresh’s father Venkataiah moved the High Court, requesting to direct the police to investigate and trace his son and also expressed suspicion that Swathi’s father role behind his missing son. The court directed the police to submit a report about the missing man by June 1and also appoint an IPS officer to investigate the case. LB Nagar DCP M Venkateshwar Rao was appointed as investigation officer. 

The love story
Amboji Naresh (23) of Pallerla village and Tummala Swathi (21) of Lingarajupalli, both in love, had eloped from their homes after Swathi’s parents refused to perform their marriage. The couple went to Mumbai and married in a court in March.

They returned to her village on May 2 after Swathi’s father agreed to accept the marriage.  While Swathi went to her village,  Naresh, who was supposed to go to  Pallerla village went missing since then. His charred body parts were found in the fields belonging to  Swathi’s family on Saturday morning.