The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday took a serious view of the lack of progress in the investigation into the disappearance of Amboji Naresh and the suicide of his wife Tummala Swathi by local police and directed the probe to be entrusted to an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police.
It wanted the police to trace the boy and produce him before the court on June 1 and, in case they are unable to do so, the newly appointed investigation officer must submit a report on the investigation. The vacation division bench comprising Justice P. Naveen Rao and Justice M.S.K. Jaiswal passed this order while dealing with the habeas corpus petition moved by Amboji Venkataiah, father of Amboji Naresh seeking the court’s intervention in securing the safety of his son who had gone missing since May 2 in Bhongir.
Both Swathi and her husband Naresh had reached Bhongir on that day and Swathi was taken away by her father Tummala Srinivas Reddy while Naresh went missing. The bench had earlier, during an urgent hearing on May 15, directed the police to produce Swathi before it on May 18. Within hours of that order, Swathi died and the family members claimed it was a suicide.
The bench raised the question as to how the girl, who had attempted suicide once, was left alone by her father resulting in her death. It also questioned the Special government pleader S. Sharat Kumar as to why the police were not questioning Swathi’s father regarding the disappearance of her husband Naresh or analysing the call data of the concerned persons. The counsel for the petitioner N.S. Arjun Kumar informed the bench that there were doubts about the death of Swathi.
