Former Andhra Speaker found dead

Hyderabad: The former speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, former minister and senior Telugu Desam leader, Dr Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, 72, died under suspicious circumstances at his residence in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad on Monday.

The police said that the TD leader was found hanging from the ceiling in his room and was declared dead at the Basavata-rakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital at noon.

Family members of the deceased politico have reportedly told the police that he was depressed for a while now, and they suspected it to be the reason for his taking the extreme step. However, the police said that they were investigating into circumstances that led to Dr Rao to commit suicide.

According to the police, the incident was reported to them at around 11.30 am after the TD leader was admitted to the hospital.

Dr Rao has been living at his residence at his two-storey house located on Banjara Hills, Road No. 5, along with Sasikala, his wife, and Dr Vijaya Lakshmi, for the last 20 days.

At around 10 am, Dr Rao had told his daughter that he would be going upstairs and latched the door of his room, said A.R. Srinivas, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), west zone.

When Vijaya Lakshmi went upstairs later to inform her father that she was taking her mother to a hospital for a health check-up, she did not get any response. When she peered in through the French windows, she found she hanging from the ceiling.

“Dr Lakshmi peeped through a window, when her father did not respond to her knocking, and saw him hanging from the ceiling by a cloth noose. She immediately alerted the gunman and security guard, who broke open the door and brought him down. He was rushed to the Indo-American Cancer Hospital in an unconscious state. “The doctors tried to revive him, but he died,” said DCP Srinivas.

While reports emerged that his elder son, Dr. K Siva Rama Krishna, was also present in the house, the police refuted it.

The police team that inspected Dr Rao’s house found a cloth tied to the ceiling fan in his room. The rod of the fan was bent, suggesting that he could have hung himself to it.

Based on his daughter Dr Lakshmi’s complaint, a case of suspicious death under section 174 of the Cr.PC has been registered.