Ex-Keesara Tahsildar Nagaraj was depressed as friends turned their backs

Sources said Nagaraj was depressed after his friends maintained a distance with him after his arrest

Hyderabad: Forty-seven-year-old Erva Balaraju Nagaraj, the former Keesara Tahsildar, was calm ever since he was caught red-handed with Rs 1.10 crore bribe, along with two realtors and a Village Revenue Assistant (VRA), during a surprise check at a guest-house in Kapra on August 14.

Even when he was first taken into custody by the ACB, along with realtors Ch Srinath Yadav and K Anji Reddy, and VRA Bongu Sairaj, Nagaraj remained silent most of the time when investigators grilled him.

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For the last three days, he was said to have slipped into depression and was not interacting with anyone in his cell in the Chanchalguda Central Prison where he was lodged since his arrest on August 14.

Sources said Nagaraj was depressed after his friends maintained a distance with him after his arrest. Some did not even console him during the ‘mulakath’ facility at the prison. Another reason was that he could not secure bail while all the others who were arrested along with him got bail, including Srinath Yadav and Anji Reddy.

Nagaraj was not only facing a bribe case registered under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act but also a criminal misconduct case. On Tuesday night after attending questioning by the ACB officials on the first day of three-day custody granted for the second time, he was visibly depressed and silent.

He asked officials and other prisoners lodged in his cell for a pen. But they could not provide it as prison norms did not permit the same. Nagaraj was then awake till 1.30 am and around 4 am, was found hanging from a bathing towel tied to the cell’s window grills.

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