KHAMMAM: After many twists and turns, the cause of death of Banoth Neelamma, a Lambada woman, turned out to be a road accident. While checking through CCTV footage, police found that she was hit by a motorcycle at Chaitnyanagar crossroad in Khammam town while she was crossing the road on April 28.
An autorickshaw driver, Kotamarthi Venkateswarlu, who saw Neelamma lying on the road with injuries admitted her to the headquarters hospital.
Her relatives who did not trace her after a frantic search for her at every possible place, approached the police suspecting that she was kidnapped and raped by the auto driver who admitted her to the hospital. The rumour spread like wildfire on social media.
Khammam Police Commissioner Vishnu S Warrier took the woman’s disappearance very seriously and formed three special teams to unravel the mystery. Finally, on Thursday, the CCTV footage helped the police solve the case.
The police identified the motorcycle rider as Yellanki Venkateswara Rao, 60, a medical shop owner in Khammam. The CP said legal action would be taken against Venkateswara Rao for causing the death of Neelamman. The CP appreciated Additional CP Subash Chandra Bose, Khammam ACP PV Ganesh and other officials for solving the case.
According to the police complaint lodged by the woman’s relatives, Neelamma, 45, came to Khammam for medical treatment along with her mother-in-law Banothu Mallamma by train on April 27. After getting down from the train, they were proceeding in an auto to Mamata Hospital when Mallamma stopped to attend to the call of nature. When she returned, she did not find the auto and Neelamma. The panicked woman went back to her village and narrated the same to her relatives.
Based on this, the police started an investigation. Though the police solved Neelamma’s death mystery, they are yet to find out why the victim was walking alone on the road and where was her mother-in-law. ACP Ganesh said that they would call Mallamma and talk to her about the sequence of incidents after they came to Khammam. The police are waiting for the mourning family to complete cremation and other formalities to proceed further in the case.