New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea of a man challenging his conviction in the 2002 death of Telugu actress Pratyusha and ordered him to surrender within four weeks.
Telugu actress death: SC rejects plea of convict, orders him to surrenderRuling that there was strangulation and rape in the case, a bench comprising Justices Rajesh Bindal and Manmohan also dismissed the plea filed by Pratyusha’s mother P Sarojini Devi, who alleged foul play in the death.
“Homicide by strangulation is overruled. Two, overwhelming ocular and medical evidence proves death due to poisoning. Three, the offense of rape is not proved against the appellant-accused. At the belated stage, it is difficult to allege that the cause of death was rape and strangulation,” the bench said.
Pratyusha died on February 24, 2002 in Hyderabad.
In 2011, the Andhra Pradesh High Court reduced the jail term of G Siddharth Reddy, who was found guilty of her death, to two years from what was given five years earlier.
In 2004, the trial court sentenced Reddy to five years in prison and fined him. ₹5,000 rupees on charges of abetment to suicide. It also sentenced him to one more year in jail and fined him ₹1,000 for attempted suicide.
The gist of the case against Reddy, according to the remand report, is that he and Pratyusha were in love with each other for six years.
Although the relationship was acceptable to Pratyusha’s mother, Reddy’s mother disapproved of the union due to which they both decided to commit suicide.
On February 23, 2002, they both went to a car, bought a bottle of pesticide, mixed it with coke and consumed it. However, wisdom prevailed over them and they decided not to die.
They went to Care Hospital in Hyderabad in a car driven by Reddy. Pratyusha dies while Reddy survives despite medical attention.
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