Five days ahead of attaining superannuation, Jagtial Additional Superintendent of Police K. Dakshinamurthy died in the early hours of Wednesday while undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
The 58-year-old officer was admitted in a private hospital in Karimnagar district headquarters, 160 km from here, after contracting coronavirus. Doctors attending him said he died of cardiac arrest around 5 a.m.
He was the first ASP rank officer in Telangana to die of the virus. The officer reportedly was not inclined to be shifted to Hyderabad for treatment and preferred the private hospital in Karimnagar. He hails from Algunoor village adjacent to Karimnagar town.
A sub-inspector of 1989 batch, Mr. Dakshinamurthy worked at different places in the undivided districts of Warangal and Khammam in the ranks of SI, Inspector and Deputy Superintendent of Police. As a police officer, he was actively involved in the security and other arrangements of Medaram Jatara, said to be the largest tribal festival in the country, held in Mulugu district every two years.
For nearly past two decades, he was involved in bringing the tribal goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma from Chilakalagattu and Kannepalli respectively to the main venue of the festival.
He worked as Nirmal ASP before being shifted to Jagtial. His final rites were performed in Karimnagar with official honours. Karimnagar Police Commissioner V.B. Kamalasan Reddy and other district officers paid tributes to the departed soul.
