The murder of 56-year-old S Suresh Kumar, an employee with ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), has shocked the residents of Annapurna Apartments in Ameerpet in Hyderabad. Neighbours who have known Suresh for close to two decades described him as a reserved and quiet gentleman.
"He would leave for office at around 8.30 am and come back by 5.30 pm, that was his routine most days," said the building watchman at Annapurna Apartments. Other than the watchman who works out of the basement, the three-floored apartment lacks security measures in the form of CCTV cameras. Suresh lived in an apartment on the second floor of the complex, while his wife lives in Chennai as she works out of there.
On Tuesday morning, the house help had come to the apartment, but left as she found the front door of the apartment locked from the outside.
In the meantime, Suresh's family who had been trying to reach him from Monday evening requested the neighbours to check on him on Tuesday. The neighbours found the door locked and sometime after 11.30 am, alerted the police. The police then broke the lock and entered the apartment only to find Suresh's dead body in the hall. He seemed to have suffered from a blow to his head and was found lying face down. The body was taken to Gandhi Hospital for post mortem, the results of which are still awaited.
The watchman and the neighbours TNM spoke to said that in the past few weeks a young man had often visited Suresh at his apartment.
"I have known him for over 15 years but he was very reserved and kept to himself, would only talk if we approach him. We did notice a young man visiting him at times recently. Suresh told us that the youth was someone known to him and works at a diagnostics centre," said a neighbour. "There are no CCTVs in this apartment, it was built sometime in the 1980s," he added.
The West Zone DCP, B Sumathi, told TNM that the police are investigating the case but have not identified any suspects. The officer neither confirmed nor denied the presence of a youth as reported by the neighbours. "We cannot comment, the case is registered as murder. There were no relationship or financial issues. We have no suspects but are working things out, give us 24 hours," she added.
Suresh is a native of Kerala and is survived by his wife, who is a bank employee, and two adult children.