Hyderabad techie suicide: Parents suspect husband's role in her death

Hyderabad: The parents of M. Lavanya Lahari, a techie, demanded that her husband, Venkateshwar Rao, a pilot with a commercial airline, be shot in an encounter, for the harassment he had meted out to their daughter. “If not, he should at least be hanged in public view,” they demanded. Lahari had allegedly committed suicide late on Thursday at Shamshabad, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, unable to bear the torture from her husband.

Meanwhile, police have taken her husband Venkateshwar Rao into custody.

Speaking to mediapersons, her parents said that she could not have committed suicide and suspected her husband could have killed her and tried to depict it like a suicide.

“She is an intelligent and brave girl. For the last eight years, he had been harassing her in many ways but she continued to live with him. He could have noticed her in a depressed state and killed her by writing a suicide note. She hanged herself to death,” they said.

On Thursday, around 11.30 pm, her parents said that they received a call that Lahari had hanged herself and that she was admitted to a hospital. Immediately, her parents, who live in Darsi, Prakasam district, started off to Hyderabad. “Till we reached here, we were told that doctors were still able to feel her pulse. My child was innocent and intelligent but he killed her,” her mother said.

While working at Deloitte till last year, she had won many accolades at the work place. “She was given offer to work abroad at least four times but he did not allow her. We requested him to send her at least for a month but he was adamant and refused to send her,” they added.

Venkateshwar Rao was allegedly having an affair with another woman who works with him and during the lockdown, they had flown to Bengaluru and other places.

“Lavanya noticed the hotel bills and questioned him. To this, he said that he would marry that woman and that she also can stay with them. Even his parents told the same,” Lavanya’s parents said.