Volunteer Bhuvaneswari had committed suicide: Prakasam Police

Ongole: The Prakasam district police have successfully cleared the mystery over the death of Ummaneni Bhuvaneswari, a specially-abled woman, who was working as a volunteer in a ward secretariat at Ongole Municipal Corporation.

Speaking at a press meet on Monday at Ongole, SP Siddharth Kaushal told reporters that they received a call on Dial 100 at around 08.49 pm on December 18, informing that a disabled woman was burning in her tricycle at Venkanna Kunta on Dasaraju Palli road. The Taluk police reached the spot and doused the fire, but by the time the woman had died.

Based on the identity card available in her bag, the police identified that the woman was Ummaneni Bhuvaneswari, aged 22 years and daughter of Srinivasulu. She had been working as a volunteer at 7th ward for the last one-and-a-half years and resided at 5th Line in Gopal Nagar.

The SP said that Bhuvaneswari was contracted polio in both legs in childhood, and was riding on a tricycle for movement. She has one sister, Narmada, who is suffering from paralysis and is at home only. As her mother passed away in her infancy, her mother, Janaki is working in a book shop opposite the Collectorate and looking after her two daughters. The SP said based on the complaint by the mother of the woman, they found during the investigation that the death of Bhuvaneswari was due to suicide only.

Siddharth explained that based on the sensitivity of the case, they formed a special investigation team headed by the OSD K Chowdeswari, the special officer for the Women's Empowerment and issues to solve the case. He said that the SIT has recorded evidence and collected narration of eyewitnesses who saw the woman minutes before her death.

He said that they also analyzed the two mobile phones of the deceased and footage from CCTV cameras installed at various locations on the route she travelled. He said that a substation shift operator helped the deceased woman who was struggling to cross road at Kammapalem to the flyover, and a shepherd under the flyover also observed her traveling alone.

The woman riding the tricycle alone on Dasaraju Palli road was spotted by one security guard at KIMS, and burning at Venkanna Kunta by another security guard at the same hospital after a few minutes.

They informed the matter to their in-charge, who called the Dial 100 immediately.

During the investigation, the SP said, they found she was active on social media and chatted with few friends daily. On December 18, at around 6.45 pm, the deceased sent an audio message to her friend in Bengaluru, a recorded death statement, explained the reasons for her disgust with life and said that she was going to commit suicide by setting herself on fire with petrol. Also, from 07.03 pm to 7.20 pm, she informed a few of her friends that she was a differently-abled person and carrying out her plans to commit suicide on that day due to her physical and family problems.

The SP said that she had collected 3 litres of petrol from her two auto driver friends early, and the petrol can placed on the tricycle was visible in the CCTV footage. He informed that the woman had also changed her WhatsApp status that she will no longer be available and said bye-bye to some of her friends and relatives.

He explained that the post mortem report confirmed that there were no murder related injuries and she died in the fire while earphones in her ears.

The SP Siddharth Kaushal appreciated the OSD K Chowdeswari, DSP KVVNV Prasad, taluk CI Sivaramakrishna Reddy, SIs Somasekhar, Nayab Rasool, ASIs Dayanand Rao, Ramesh Rao, HCs Ramakrishna Rao, G Babu, SB HC K Narasimha Rao and PC Ravi for their outstanding performance in finding the facts in 48 hours. AP State Women Commission member T Ramadevi, legal advisor on Domestic Aiolence Act Sarala, and others also participated in the press meet.