The suspected suicide pact of two teenage girls, who allegedly jumped into the Panagal reservoir here on Thursday, is deemed false as police now believe the whole episode was framed.
“The duo are very much alive and suspected to be in Guntur,” an official said. The footwear, bag, chunni and a suicide note of M.A. Habeebunissa, 18, an Education student in the town, and T. Sravani, 17, a Inter second student in Hyderabad – on the Panagal reservoir bund on January 31, made the police suspect that they would have jumped into the reservoir. And a search by the Fire and Irrigation Departments was on till dusk.
On Friday, a team of the National Disaster Response Force too swam and searched the water body, but did not find a trace.
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And, by decomposition and release of gases, it was thought their bodies would float on water 24 hours after drowning, but in this case, there was no indication even after two evenings. The police, however, had registered a missing case and started examining exit points from the town.
According to an official, “The girls were seen on CCTVs at the railway station, they were wearing footwear, bought tickets and boarded a train towards Guntur at around 2 p.m.” They might have also purchased a cellphone there, it was revealed.
While the reasons for framing their escape as a suicide are not known, a doctor who diagnosed Habeebunissa had confirmed that she has a blood clot in her head. And Sravani once suffered a liver infection but was healthy, according to her parents.
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The suicide notes purportedly written by the girls said their cure would cost lakhs, that they did not want to burden the parents and hence they were leaving happily.
Several theories – by relatives, the police, the hostel students and staff, point to their friendship, in that, “they shared the same hostel as a senior and junior students in Hyderabad, turned very good friends and spoke over phone for long when away.”
“The girls surely have framed a cinema-like story. We’d find them soon,” the official said.