Three days after Congress leader Vikram Goud suffered gunshot wounds in Telangana, there is still no clarity on whether he was attacked or if it was a failed suicide attempt.
While police are yet to solve the crime, Telugu news channels have linked him to the drug scandal that has rocked the state. Many Tollywood celebrities like Ravi Teja, Charmme Kaur, Puri Jagannadh have already been questioned for their alleged involvement in it.
Vikram Goud, son of former Minister Mukesh Goud, sustained three bullet injuries on his stomach, right shoulder and spinal cord on Friday night.
After regaining consciousness, the injured Congress leader said in his statement that masked gunmen barged into his home and opened fire at him.
According to Deccan Chronicle, police don’t believe his statement as he claimed he received threat calls from some people but could not substantiate it with details of the suspects.
As per reports, police have not dismissed the possibility of it being a failed suicide attempt since Mukesh Goud was facing financial problems.
Police have also not ruled out the possibility of a murder attempt by one of his family members.
After the incident, police said they would be examining CCTV footage in the neighbourhood of Vikram’s residence in Film Nagar, to identify the assailants. However, their investigation has so far yielded no results.
While earlier, it was reported that a crude weapon was seized from the spot, the latest report says that police are yet to recover the gun with which Vikram Goud was shot.
Investigation officer, DCP, west zone, Venkateshwar Rao, conducted a series of investigations following the incident--including collecting scientific clues from the spot and examining the premises with a search dog.
City police commissioner, Mahender Reddy, earlier said that they would be doing a series of examinations including scene reconstruction to unravel the mystery.
Vikram Goud was shot on Friday night at around 2:30 am, according to his wife, Shipali Mulla.
In her statement to the police, she said that the couple were supposed to visit a dargah for ‘anna-daanam’ (food distribution). She said that she rushed downstairs after hearing gun shots and saw her husband lying in a pool of blood.
Following this, she rushed him to Apollo hospitals, Jubilee Hills with the help of watchmen.
Almost all Telugu news channels, including TV9, ABN andhrajyothi,10TV, CVR news aired a story alleging that Vikram could have been associated with the drugs case, since he too owns a pub.
They said that police read Vikram Goud’s WhatsApp records, after recovering his phone and without quoting any official said that he was following the drug-scandal very closely, which his wife also was aware of.
Reacting to these stories, Shipali said that her husband spoke to DCP, Task Force, B Limba Reddy and gave details of the incident.
She appealed to news channels to stop false allegations.