Hours before killing self, Andhra student accuses cop of harassment in voice note

Murali, a 21-year-old from Gannavaram mandal near Vijayawada, was found dead in the Konayi canal on Monday afternoon. Hours before his body was found, Murali sent a voice note to his friend Karunakar, a reporter with a regional news channel, saying, “Gannavaram SI Narayanamma is the cause of my death. She has troubled me a lot mentally. Please help me.” 

Murali was a student of Nalanda Degree College in Vijayawada who sold tea near the Gandhi Bomma Centre in Gannavaram at night. On Sunday night, around 8.30 pm, Murali, who was riding his bike, ran into Gannavaram Sub Inspector Narayanamma and her husband, who were also on a bike and riding in the opposite direction. An altercation occurred, following which Karunakar was summoned to the police station. However, details around the cause the squabble, and what followed at the police station, remains murky. 

Karunakar says that Murali was summoned to the police station and release around 10.30 pm. “Around 11.15 pm, he put up a status saying, ‘All of you bye.’ At 11.40 pm, he sent me the voice note,” says Karunakar.  

On returning from the police station, Murali went home, ate dinner and told his mother that he was stepping out, and according to Karunakar, this was the last she saw of her son.  

According to Karunakar, eye-witnesses from the spot where the altercation happened told him that when Murali’s bike nearly bumped into the bike on which Narayanamma and her husband were riding, the husband got down and allegedly abused Murali verbally. “The SI was in civil clothes. People told me that her husband abused Murali and threatened to seize his bike. Murali also retaliated verbally, saying he didn’t have the right to do so since he wasn’t an SI himself.”

SI Narayamma gave reporters a similar account, with small differences. According to her version, she and her husband were returning from a hospital, when Murali came speeding on his bike from the opposite direction. “We braked suddenly, afraid that he would crash with our bike. He sped past us. I called him by his name, since I knew him already,” she said. Narayanamma says that when her husband mentioned that she was the SI, Murali spoke in a dismissive manner and moved close to them in an authoritative manner. “Later I called out Circle Inspector and told him that Murali spoke dismissively when we mentioned I am the SI. The CI said he would summon Murali, and asked me to come to the station. We met him there and talked normally, asked him why he was behaving in such a way, being a hardworking student.” Narayamma denied that Murali was beaten up at the station, or that he was abused by her husband. 

Though what happened between the SI, her husband, and Murali is unclear, his voice note categorically says that the SI’s mental harassment pushed him to take his life. Karunakar, who woke up around 1.30 am and heard Murali’s message, informed the police and began to search for his friend. “We searched till early morning. We then thought he might have gone to Vijayawada city with friends, which he did occasionally. On Monday afternoon, police found his bike and footwear near the canal and called me. After some time, his body was recovered from the canal,” Karunakar says. 

On Wednesday, after the post mortem, Murali’s friends led a bike rally from Kesarapalli demanding justice for Murali. The rally was obstructed by the police. 

Karunakar, who has known Murali for nearly five years now, says that his friend had taken up the job of selling tea to support his mother and sisters financially, after his father’s death a few years ago. While his sisters are now married, Murali lived with his mother, putting himself through college during the day and selling tea at night from 10 pm to 4 am, when his mother would come and take over. “He was friendly with everyone. He knew most local reporters and cops, they were his only friends here,” Karunakar says. 

A departmental investigation has been initiated into the matter by the Vijayawada Commissioner of Police.