Hyderabad: The fate of Naresh and Swathi might have been different if Athmakur police had handled the case as per law. The intervention of the police after the couple’s elopement created more trouble. The cops colluded with Srinivas Reddy to separate the couple, despite knowing that the adults had already got married legally. An audio recording of Athmakur SI asking Swathi in a threatening tone to come back from Mumbai came out on Sunday. Though the official does not make any threats he insisted that she should come back even after Swathi told him that she had willingly gone to Mumbai and got married to Naresh.
The SI said, “You must come back here so that we can produce you before the DSP to prove that you are alive. Then we will close the case." Swathi said that her call itself was proof that she was alive. “I have already produced certificates to prove that I am alive. Then why should I come,” she asked. The SI then answered, “How can I believe you? May be somebody is pointing a knife at you and making you speak. You must come back.” The SI’s call was in connection with the missing case filed by Swathi’s father T. Srinivas Reddy.
After the couple came back to their village both were taken to the police station. Ramannapet CI N. Srinivas allowed Srinivas Reddy to take Swathi with him and Naresh was sent back. Legal experts said that when an adult elopes and gets married police cannot compel them to get separated. Meanwhile, denying allegations that police helped Srinivas Reddy, senior officials said they were just following up the missing case filed by Swathi’s father.
Naresh and Swathi had returned to their village from Mumbai on March 28, and that day Swathi was taken to her home by her father Srinivas Reddy. But due to harassment by her father, who compelled her to forget Naresh, Swathi again eloped with Naresh on March 31. The couple was back again in Mumbai on April 1. They stayed in a slum in Vikhroli for a month before returning to their village on May 2. After that Naresh was brutally murdered.
Cops helped killers, says Naresh’s dad
The parents of Naresh protested near Bhongir police station on Sunday. They alleged the police were hand in glove with the killers. Naresh’s father Venkataiah said they had approached the police after his son went missing. “But the police threatened to file a dowry case against my family. The cops colluded with Srinivas Reddy,” he said. Naresh went missing the night he and Swathi returned from Mumbai, but the police took 25 days to crack the case, he said. Although Srinivas was the only suspect, police did not quiz him well. The Minority Backward Classes (MBC), Kula Vivaksha Porata Samithi (KVPS), CPM, AIDWA and the Rajaka Yuva Sena participated in the protest.
