Hyderabad police arrest one for murdering ISRO employee

A quarrel over not paying for sex led to the accused killing the ISRO employee with a knife, say police.

news Crime

The mystery surrounding the murder of the ISRO employee working with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) at his residence in Ameerpet, in the heart of Hyderabad city, has been solved by the police with the arrest of one person on Friday. The Hyderabad police have arrested Janagama Srinivas, a lab technician also residing at Ameerpet, the area where the 56-year-old ISRO employee, S Suresh was residing.

Police claim that Suresh was lonely and as he was financially well-off, Srinivas got closer to the ISRO employee for some work related to the diagnostic centre he was working in. The police claim, the accused, Srinivas, exploited the "loneliness and urge to perform unnatural act" (an offensive and homophobic term used in Section 377 which the Supreme Court has struck down) but expected monetary favours in return. Police say Suresh was murdered after an argument broke out between the two about the payment for sex.

How the case unravelled

Police identified Srinivas as a suspect based on the statements given by the Annapurna apartment security guard, domestic worker and the neighbours of the deceased. On October 1, Suresh was found lying naked at his apartment with head injuries. The door to the apartment was locked from the outside and the building did not have any security measures in the form of CCTV cameras.

Suresh's family had reached out to the police through the neighbours after attempts to reach him on the phone failed. The last person to see Suresh alive was the building security guard who saw him arrive drenched in the rain at around 5:30 pm to the building basement to park his bike. Suresh, who hails from Kerala, had been living alone in the apartment for the past several years and had been a resident of Hyderabad for 20 years. His neighbours described him as a quiet and reserved man who largely kept to himself.

According to the police press statement, the deceased Suresh and the murder accused Srinivas were in a relationship where sexual favours were exchanged. However, police say Srinivas was expecting to be paid for sex and that he murdered Suresh for refusing to offer payment.

Police say Srinivas purchased a knife on September 30 and visited Suresh at 9:30 pm. The duo got intimate after which an argument broke out about payment. Police say Srinivas attacked Suresh with the knife, causing serious head injuries that resulted in his death. Police traced the accused after reviewing CCTV camera footage from nearby junctions and with the tip-off that Srinivas was an employee of Vijaya Diagnostics.

Police have recovered the knife used as the murder weapon, 2 rings that belonged to Suresh and Rs 10,000 from the accused. Suresh is survived by his wife who is a bank employee based out of Chennai and two adult children.

Speaking at the press conference on Friday, the Hyderabad Police Commissioner, Anjani Kumar said, "Srinivas was regularly visiting the deceased, they were always seen together. We used blood samples, presence of hair at the crime scene and the phone call of the person was also analysed." The SR Nagar police took 39-year-old Srinivas into custody based on these details and upon questioning, new facts came to light, said the Commissioner.

"In this entire process, we found evidence of unnatural sex activities, that's also one of the motives because unnatural sex money transaction was an important thing. That turned out to be the reason why this murder has taken place," the Commissioner added.

The term ‘unnatural sex’ was previously used under Section 377 of the IPC to describe sexual acts between two consenting persons of the same gender or sex, among other acts. A five-member bench of the Supreme Court had pronounced that Section 377 was used to target the LGBTQI+ community in India, and it was struck down in 2018. However, the Hyderabad police appears to be still using the term to refer to the LGBTQI+ community.