Engineering student found dead in Krishna district, suicide suspected

Vijayawada: A 22-year-old engineering student was found dead in a half-burnt state on the outskirts of Pedapulipaka village in Penamaluru of Krishna district on Wednesday.

The deceased was Jammula Jeevankumar, a native of Vallurupalem who resided in Machavaram with his family. He was doing his third-year engineering at a private college here. The boy had an argument with his parents regarding his studies and behaviour and was keeping himself away from his home since Sunday night.

According to the police, a complaint was lodged by Lingisetti Simhadri, village revenue officer of Pedapulipaka, stating that a body was found in a half-burnt state on the outskirts of the village in the morning. The body was having burn marks. A scooter was found parked at a distance of 10 meters. Police registered a case and started an investigation.  

DSP Jayasurya said Jeevan attended a birthday party on Tuesday night. Later, he took his friend’s scooter and went out.

"Jeevan had an argument with his parents on Sunday. He did not go home since then and was staying with his friends. He last spoke with his parents around 2am. He also asked his mother to look after his father well. He refused to return home," the police said.

The police found CCTV footage of Jeevan going alone to Pedapulipaka and entering a petrol bunk and buying a litre of petrol, for which he paid through UPI. No injuries were found on the body other than the burns. The body was shifted to Vijayawada government general hospital for autopsy.  

The police ruled out a possibility of honour killing and said there was no role of any girl in this case. Prima facie, this looked like a  suicide. The police are waiting for the autopsy report to ascertain facts.