Doctor accused of firing on colleague ends life

• Police recover suicide note said to be written by Shashi Kumar at a farmhouse
• Police verifying the allegations made in the suicide note

Hyderabad: A doctor, accused of opening fire on his business partner over a dispute, committed suicide with the same weapon hours after the attack, police said on Tuesday. Dr Shashi Kumar was found dead at a farmhouse in Moinabad area around midnight. He allegedly shot himself dead by firing the pistol into his mouth, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Rajendranagar division K Ganga Reddy said.

A suicide note, purportedly written by Shashi Kumar, was recovered from the spot. The doctor claimed that he had not shot Dr Uday Kumar, his business partner. He alleged that their partner Dr Sai Kumar had opened fire on Uday Kumar. "We are verifying the allegations made in the suicide note," the ACP said.

Uday, Shashi Kumar and Sai Kumar are partners in a multi-speciality 100-bed hospital in Madhapur area here, which was inaugurated on January 1. According to police, a woman had dropped Shashi Kumar at the farmhouse after the incident. The incident of shooting on Uday Kumar happened on Street Number 6 of Himayath Nagar here.

Shashi Kumar allegedly shot Uday Kumar inside a car before fleeing from the spot on Monday. Police had formed two special teams to arrest Shashi Kumar. Deputy Commissioner of Police V B Kamalasan Reddy on Monday said the incident could be a fallout of disputes over running of the hospital. Uday Kumar managed to get out of his car, get into an auto-rickshaw and reach a private hospital.

He is stated to be "stable." As per the preliminary probe, Shashi Kumar had invested about Rs 75 lakh in the hospital. Uday Kumar was the medical director, Sai Kumar the CEO, , the DCP said. "It seems differences had erupted and Shashi had sought his money back," he said. The three had met to discuss the issue. At the time of the incident, they were sitting inside a car - Uday in the driver's seat, Sai on co-driver's seat and Shashi on the backseat.

"Following heated arguments, Shashi threatened them and suddenly took out his licensed .32 pistol and allegedly fired one round at Uday. The bullet grazed his left ear," DCP Reddy said. Meanwhile, it is said the doctor called his wife over her mobile to say sorry before taking the extreme step. In his suicide note, he named the partners for betraying him and called for punishing them.

According to police Shashi Kumar went to his friend Chandrakala’s house in Punjagutta and requested her to drop him at her farmhouse. Some hours later, she received a call from Shashi, who told her that he was committing suicide.

Chandrakala, with the help of Punjagutta and Narayanguda police reached the farmhouse at Nakkapally in Moinabad and found Shashi dead. “His body was lying in a pool of blood. He allegedly shot himself in mouth with his .32 mm revolver,” the Moinabad police said.

Meanwhile, Shashi’s wife Kanthi spoke to media and alleged that Dr Uday and Dr Sai had cheated her husband. After the Himayathnagar’s incident, they had hired assassins and got her husband killed, she told media. Kanthi said her husband had called her, uttered the word sorry, said that Sai had opened fire at Uday and switched off the phone.

On the other hand Chandrakala said that Shashi had gone to her house in the evening and said is that he was stressed out and asked her to drop him at the farmhouse. I dropped him at farmhouse and asked the watchman to take care of Shashi Kumar. At about 10 pm, Shashi called me and said he was committing suicide.

I immediately approached Punjagutta police and alerted the cops,” Chandrakala, who dropped Sashi at her farmhouse, told police. Dr Sai Kumar, who is the eye-witness in the firing incident, was been examined and his detailed statement was recorded,” the DCP said.Answering a query, he said the allegations made by deceased doctor’s wife did not corroborate with the evidence and investigation is on.