Sai Kumar and Ravi Kumar became orphans with the sudden death of their mother
N. Padma's house at Shivajinagar (Photo: DC)
Hyderabad: Sai Kumar and Ravi Kumar became orphans with the sudden death of their mother Nakka Padma on Sunday. Sai Kumar used to help his mother run the household, while Ravi went to school and sold ice creams during holidays. Padma’s husband, N. Raju, passed away in 2009. He suffered a heart attack while watching the death news of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy.
Padma and Raju migrated from Mahbubnagar nearly 15 years ago and settled in the Shivajinagar area of Bhojagutta. After her husband’s death, Padma became the sole breadwinner of the family till Sai Kumar started working. Padma ran a tea stall at Mehdipatnam. As income was not sufficient, she started working at function halls as a daily wage earner.
She recently developed health complications. “She had some health problems. Later, we found she had low blood pressure and suffered fits sometimes, but we never thought that she would die suddenly,” said Ravi. Padma returned home on Friday after questioning. Sai spoke to her on Saturday morning before she was called again for questioning.
“I thought that she was at the police station and was fine. But I was shocked when some cops called me on Sunday morning to tell that she is dead. We did not even know she was taken to hospital,” said her elder son Sai Kumar. She had the habit of consuming liquor daily, but never created disturbance in the locality or had fights with others in the area.
“She was here since 15 years and never troubled anyone. As far as we know she was a healthy, hard working woman,” said one of her neighbours. Locals say the complainant in the theft case and the police assaulted Padma. “The woman who gave complaint beat her up. Later, cops assaulted her. One female home guard also beat her up severely,” said a resident of Shivajinagar. However, the police still maintain that she died due to ill health and not because of injuries.
Padma was severely beaten up by police: HR activist
Human rights activists condemned the death of Padma saying that the human rights of citizens are being violated grossly during investigations. They said that if proper procedures of interrogating a woman were followed the incident would not have happened.
They alleged that before she was called for questioning, she was severely beaten up by women constables at her home for resisting to go to the police station. As per rules when a woman is called for questioning any of her kith or kin should accompany her and investigation should be done in the presence of a woman officer.
“But this was not done in her case. She was called alone. None of her family members or elders of the area were informed about her arrest,”said human rights forum president S. Jeevan Kumar. The forum also demanded an inquiry into the six custodial deaths after the formation of TS. The SHRC has issued a suo motu notice to the Hyderabad collector, city police commissioner in the case and sought a report by September 11.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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