Retired medical officer’s body exhumed over suspicious death in Kothagudem

According to police, the deceased medical officer’s sister, T Vijaya Amrutha Rani filed a petition before the High Court seeking to direct Tiruvuru police to register a case in connection with the death of Priscilla Kumari.

Kothagudem: The body of a retired medical officer, who died in October 2024 at Tiruvuru in the NTR Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, was exhumed for a re-postmortem here on Thursday.

Andhra Pradesh High Court issued orders for the re-postmortem after the family members of the medical officer, Tera Priscilla Kumari, expressed doubts over the cause of her death. She worked at a primary health centre (PHC) at Gampalagudem, Tiruvuru mandal and retired there in 2018 after which she returned to her native place Kothagudem.

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Chunchupalli police, along with medical and other officials, exhumed the body buried at a Christian cemetery in Venkateswara Colony and conducted re-postmortem in the presence of her family members.

According to police, the deceased medical officer’s sister, T Vijaya Amrutha Rani filed a petition before the High Court seeking to direct Tiruvuru police to register a case in connection with the death of Priscilla Kumari.

She complained that the police did not register a case even after the family had lodged a complaint against a suspect, Matangi Prakash Babu, who works as an upper division clerk at Gampalagudem PHC. The family members also lodged complaints with the AP Chief Justice, DGP, Mylavaram DSP and the Governor against him.

The accused was said to have promised the family members to help them in settling the deceased medical officer’s retirement benefits and asked Priscilla Kumari to stay at Tiruvuru until the matters were settled. It was at that time she died and her funeral was conducted in Kothagudem.

It was said that when the family members asked the accused about her bank balance and pension details he answered them rashly and evasively. Then the petitioner got into doubt and when checked her sister’s bank account statement it was revealed the accused had swindled an amount of Rs. 60 lakh from her sister’s account.