Bengaluru: As the city police are investigating the death of Goluguri Sai Sarat, a 22-year-old Integrated M.Tech student of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-B) who allegedly jumped to his death from the seventh floor of the hostel building in the early hours of August 11, his parents suspect foul play in their son’s death and claim it to be a case of “culpable homicide”.
Maintaining that there was no reason for his son to take the extreme step and that he never showed any suicidal tendencies earlier, Sarat’s father G. Kodandarama Reddy, an Income Tax officer in Hyderabad, said, “Something has happened either at the birthday party Sarat attended or during his stay at the hostel room from the time he returned from the party to the time of his death which still remains unanswered.”
He said, “My son is a teetotaler and enjoyed consistent bright track record throughout his academic career. There was no compelling reason for him to end his life in such an alleged manner. I am pained by the manner in which the hostel authorities have reported the matter to the police. I request police officers investigating the case to book the case under culpable homicide and bring out the truth.”
Mr Reddy blamed the police for conducting the inquiry only on the basis of information provided by the institute and not interrogating the 11 people present at the birthday party. He suspected a “desperate attempt from the institute to prove it to be a suicide to dispose of the case as soon as they can”.
He said, “There are many suspicions with regard to Sarat’s death. Nobody knows what happened on that night before his death. His spectacle was lying on the bed in his room and there was no way he could go out of the room during the night without his spectacles. The police, instead of treating it under Section 174 CrPC (suicide), should probe it as a case of culpable homicide.”
Denying Mr Reddy’s claims that the police are investigating the case only on the basis of information provided by the institution, DCP (South-East) Dr Boralingaiah M.B. said that all possible angles are being probed and the investigating team is getting all the details. “The case is registered under Section 174 of CrPC based on the prima facie evidence. The investigation has just begun and we are probing all angles and interrogating all those related to the case,” he said.
He said that help will be taken from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to retrieve data from Sarat’s mobile phone.
