Injured medico targeted for being pro-Telangana?

Bengaluru: The deeper they dig, the more the plot thickens. A heavy veil of secrecy swathes the brutal attack on 22-year-old MBBS student Kameshwara Sai Prasad — a native of Kalwakurthy in Andh­ra Pradesh’s Mahbubnagar.

Unidentified miscreants had doused him with an inflammable substance and set him ablaze on the night of November 12.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the incident was the result of a clash between two warring student factions immersed in Andhra Pradesh politics.

Sources say that Kamesh­wara, a final year student at Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College in Kolar, was pro-Telangana, which apparently did not go down well with his fellow students, most of whom were pro-Seemandra.

A year and a half ago, Kameshwara reportedly moved out of the men’s hostel due to alleged harassment by his hostel mates over his support for Telangana, and rented a room off campus with one of his friends.

Supporting revelations that Kameshwara is an active supporter of a separate Telangana is the victim’s activity on his social networking profile. The day after the incident, a social networking page titled ‘Mission Telangana’ posted a status message condemning the attack on Kamesh­wara, and requesting “…all Telangana friends to observe utmost restraint and not jump to any conclusions at this moment.”

The victim’s distraught mother, V. Jyothi Sharma, said, “We got a call from one of Kameshwara’s friends at 10.30 pm on Tuesday informing us that our son was involved in a fire accident and had been admitted to St John’s hospital. We rushed to Bengaluru from Hyderabad immediately and everything’s been a blur since.”

Remaining tight-lipped, Sharma maintained that her son had been a good student from the beginning of his degree. “Since the last three years, Kameshwara has been diligent in his studies. He rarely spoke to us about his friends except for saying they were co-operative and helpful; but we are not aware if he had any enemies. The Kolar police are in touch with my husband, Lakshmana, but so far we do not have an idea as to what really happened,” she added.

Kameshwara’s younger sister, Bhavana, is a third year B.Tech student in Hyderabad. “My brother moved into a rented house with his best friend about 18 months ago, but he never told us why. We don’t know if he was wearing a gold chain when he was attacked,” she said.

Meanwhile, Kolar Superinten­dent of Police Dr Ram Niwas Sepat confirmed the case was being investigated from all angles.

"We are questioning Kameshwara’s friends, neighbours, and everyone he had ties with. Five teams have been formed for this purpose but we can not reveal our findings yet. No arrests have been made, and we are acting upon the original complaint lodged by his friend Suraj, who claimed Kameshwara was attacked by chain snatchers. We do not know who attacked him and why,” he said, neither confirming nor denying that the incident could have been politically motivated.