Hyderabad: Television actor Pradeep Kumar committed suicide in his Hyderabad apartment in the wee hours of Wednesday after a tiff with his wife Pavani.
Police said 29-year-old Pradeep hanged himself from the ceiling in their bedroom while his wife and her cousin were also in the flat.
Pavani said her husband appeared depressed after a minor argument and committed suicide suddenly. However, sources said Pradeep was unhappy after seeing a picture of Pavani and her cousin, D. Sravan Kumar, as her Whatsapp profile picture. This made him end his life. An injury on his right hand and the head have raised suspicions.
Saptamatrika star Uppaluri Pradeep Kumar belonged to Vijayawada. He married P. Durga Reddy, also known as Pavani, a television actress and a model, in August 2016.
Since three months, D. Sravan Kumar was also living with them in the flat. On Tuesday night, the couple celebrated Sravan’s birthday in their flat. Pavani’s two elder sisters also attended the party. During the party, which went on till 1 am, Pradeep and Sravan consumed alcohol and the sisters left.
Pavani and Pradeep had a tiff and Pavani locked herself up in the bathroom. Pradeep followed her and shattered a mirror with his right fist when she did not open the door. Pavani came out and the two spoke. Later, he went to the bathroom. Pavani said she thought he would sleep. She was planning to wake him up after some time for his shoot and fell asleep. She woke up and knocked on the bedroom door but there was no response. She called on his phone, but he did not answer. She and Sravan later broke the door and found him hanging. “I thought he was upset. It was just a minor argument,” Pavani said. Police said they have filed a suspicious death case.
Narsingi Inspector P. Ramchander Rao said, “There are no injuries except the one caused when he punched the mirror and the one behind the head, which occurred when his body was brought down. We are probing all angles.”
The police also recorded the statements of Pradeep’s mother, Suryalakshmi, and his brother, Chaitanya, who flew down from Chennai.
