Five days after they enacted a suicide drama on the Panagal reservoir bund, the Nalgonda police on Monday found Habeebunissa and Sravani in a hostel in Vijayawada.
The girls, who first met at Krishnaveni Junior College in Hyderabad in 2017, had lived in the same hostel and turned good friends. According to a police source, they wanted to live together. After their parents started questioning them about their friendship, the girls came up with this plan.
Around 12.30 p.m. on January 31, the Nalgonda II town police, based on a complaint by Sravani's father T. Venkateswarlu, who was informed of her suicide note by his wife, launched a search operation.Around 4 p.m., they found a chunni, a handbag, the girls’ footwear and a suicide note of Habeebunissa, 18, who is pursuing her Diploma in Elementary Education in the town.
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The police launched a search, assuming the girls might have jumped into the reservoir, but found no trace. A repeat search by the National Disaster Response Force the next day led to the suspicion that the girls were not in the water body.
The CCTV footage of the railway station confirmed that they were alive.
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But the police had the clue of “a third girl, Habeebunissa’s friend, who accompanied them to the station.”
Officials said she was interrogated. “A duplicate SIM card, which received texts, helped us locate the towers and track the girls’ movements.” Accordingly, their digital footprints were found in Guntur, Vijayawada, Chennai and near Mumbai. On Monday, their location was narrowed down to a ladies hostel in Labbipeta in Vijayawada.
Resolving the missing complaints filed by MA Khaleel and T. Venkateswarlu, the police handed over the girls to them.