Nizamabad: The suspicious death of a 20-year old college student Srikanth Patel, who went missing in September and whose decomposed body was found under a tree near a lake in Khandgaon village of Bodhan mandal in Nizamabad district on December 12, was not only proving to be a major challenge and embarrassment for the police but also causing anger among the villagers, as the police had failed to trace the youth even after 80 days of them lodging a complaint.
Though Nizamabad Police Commissioner KR Nagaraju had constituted a special team headed by DCP V Arvind Babu, parents of the victim and villagers are not satisfied and are accusing the police of taking sides with the accused. In fact, the police took the case seriously and formed a special team to investigate the matter only after Srikanth’s parents and villagers staged a protest for over 20 hours.
Srikanth, a B com second year at a private college in Bodhan, had gone missing after he went to college on September 23. His parents lodged a missing complaint with the Bodhan rural police on September 24 and even blamed the family members of a girl, with whom Srikanth was reportedly in a relationship.
They told the police that on September 19, the girl’s parents and relatives had threatened Srikanth to stay away from their daughter. Though the police interrogated the girl’s relatives, they could not establish their involvement in Srikanth’s disappearance.
According to his relatives, the police told his parents that Srikanth left the village on his own by train and that they were closing the case.
Meanwhile, on the intervening night of December 11 and 12, villagers found a decomposed body under a tree near Paspu Chervu and informed the police. The police informed the parents of Srikanth, who identified the body as of Srikanth.
Nagaraju told the media that the reason behind the death would be known only after getting the postmortem report. He assured the parents of the victim that the culprit would be nabbed soon and justice would be done.