|
Hyderabad, Aug. 3: An Infosys techie who fell to her death at a company campus here on Tuesday was covered in scratches and wounds caused independently of the fall and may have been “drugged” with alcohol, doctors involved in the post-mortem have said.
The family of B. Neelima, 27, who fell from a multi-storey parking complex on the Gachibowli campus, has been insisting throughout that she had no reason to kill herself. Her parents had given the police a written statement alleging foul play by unnamed persons at the Infosys office.
The police, who have registered a case of suspicious death and had initially suggested suicide, have declined comment till a forensic test is done on the contents of Neelima’s stomach.
Neelima had been working in Infosys’s office in New Jersey, the US, since March 2011 and had come home on a month’s leave. Her husband B. Suresh Reddy, a techie whom she had married three years ago, too worked in the US with another company.
Six months ago, police sources said, problems arose in the marriage and Suresh returned to Hyderabad, where he now runs a mobile phone franchise.
Neelima arrived on her vacation on July 21 and had been staying in her parents’ home while often meeting Suresh in the daytime. She was to return to America on August 17, her parents said.
Doctors at the Gandhi Hospital, where the post-mortem was conducted, lent credence to the family’s suspicions.
“Abrasions (areas where the skin has been scraped off) and scratches were found on her neck, body and legs. There were several deep wounds too. All this indicates there was a struggle before she fell,” a doctor said.
“In her stomach, we found a liquid that is likely to be alcohol. For confirmation, we are sending her blood samples to the state forensic science laboratory. Its report is expected in a week.”
It’s not clear why Neelima visited the Infosys office on Tuesday. Her uncle said she had earlier called an Infosys employee named Prasad and they had exchanged text messages.
Neelima walked into the campus at 8.40pm and fell to her death at 10.30pm. “CCTV footage shows her walking towards the parking complex around 8.45pm,” police inspector A. Balakoti told reporters. She apparently took the lift to the seventh floor.
“She had no specific work in the office but entered the campus by swiping her employee card,” the inspector said. She apparently had an argument with the security guards after the swiping of her American Infosys card set off a beep and they initially refused her entry.
Around 10.30, the security guards heard the thud. Neelima was declared dead in hospital. Among her handbag’s contents were a mobile phone and a paper slip with the phone numbers of Suresh and her mother Eruva Rani.
The body was handed over to the family yesterday after the post-mortem.
The police said Suresh had dropped Neelima at her mother’s home on Tuesday evening. “The husband claims she spoke to him over the mobile phone till 9pm and asked him to pick her up from her mother’s home on Wednesday morning. We’re analysing call data record,” a police source said.
Neelima’s mother alleged that Infosys had informed them of Neelima’s death only at 3am — four-and-a-half hours after her death. But according to deputy commissioner Yoganand, call records show that the company kept calling the parents since midnight but they took the call only at 3am.
|
