Husband, father, ‘murderer’

On the first Saturday of each month, nine-year-old Vithal and five-year-old Nandu would wait for their father Aluru Raghavendra Guru Prasad to pick them up from their mother Suhasini Mazumdar’s home in Malkajgiri, Hyderabad. The parents were in the process of getting divorced, and according to a court order, 44-year-old Prasad could meet and take his children out for a few hours twice a month — the first and last Saturdays. So, on October 4, Vithal and Nandu were ready in the morning. Both enjoyed going out with their father, who would take them to a mall or a cinema theatre or to his home in Alwal. The father came at 9.30 am, took the children away, and said he would return with them by 1.30 pm. He did return, but without the children. He pleaded with 39-year-old Mazumdar to return to live with him, and asked her to come to the temple where the two boys were playing. She refused, so he left, and said he would bring back the boys from the temple.

An hour later, when he didn’t come back with the boys, Mazumdar began making frantic calls to Prasad. In the evening, a railway constable answered the phone, saying he found the device next to a man who lay dead on the tracks. Prasad was suspected to have jumped to death in front of a train that day. Two days later, the police recovered the decomposed bodies of Vithal and Nandu. They had been murdered and dumped in a pit in a plot owned by Prasad. The police found an unsent text message on Prasad’s phone in which he said he had murdered the children.

Behind the final act of murder lies the story of a long-troubled marriage and a messy divorce, as well as flourishing careers. Mazumdar was a software engineer with a top IT company, and Prasad an assistant professor at a reputed business school. A PhD in chemistry, he had authored 30 papers in the fields of pharmacology and toxicology. The two married on May 28, 2004, their match arranged by their families. Trouble began on the day of the wedding. “There was some issue over a small amount of money. Elders intervened and resolved it,” said Swaroop, Mazumdar’s brother, who was at the police station to record his statement.

Prasad was “very money-minded”, alleged Swaroop. “He took away Suhasini’s credit and ATM cards and always used to quarrel with her over money. My sister revealed this to us when she came home for the delivery of her first child in April-May 2005,” he said. After Vithal was born and Prasad came home to visit his wife, he “argued with our father over a loan Suhasini had taken from her company”, said Swaroop. He said Prasad filed a complaint against his father at the Malkajgiri police station.

After the matter was resolved by the elders, Mazumdar, along with her newborn, returned to Prasad’s home in Alwal. “But for the next four years, he did not allow my sister to visit our parents. Even when we bought a new house, he did not allow her to come for the house-warming ceremony,’’ Swaroop continued. Prasad had bought the plot where he allegedly dumped his children “but never told his wife about the purchase”. Swaroop also said Prasad was in a dispute with his sisters and mother over sharing the sale proceeds of an ancestral property.

He also spoke of the times when a “sadistic” Prasad “punished” Mazumdar. Like when she had got off a bus and was walking towards her home 2 km away, he drove past and did not offer her a ride, despite seeing her. Swaroop also offered to show pictures the family had taken of bruises on Mazumdar’s cheeks, suffered after Prasad allegedly hit her.

Finally, in early 2013, after nine years of the turbulent marriage, Mazumdar decided to “not put up with Prasad anymore”. She returned to her parents’ home in Malkajgiri and filed a case of domestic violence against Prasad under Section 498A of the IPC in a local court in April that year. The court granted Prasad bail, but ordered that he could visit his children only twice a month, leaving him “angry and distraught”, said the police.

In September that year, he filed for Restitution of Conjugal Rights, a legal provision under which a court can order both spouses to live together. He, however, later withdrew his demand for conjugal rights, and filed for divorce instead.

The police are yet to record the statements of Prasad’s family members, who live in Kadapa, his hometown where he was cremated.

Meanwhile, they are piecing together Prasad’s side of the story from the notes and letters recovered from his home. A suicide note he left behind says, “I have taken good care of you then why are you doing this injustice to me. You and your parents are branding me a criminal by filing false cases. It is such torture to live with these cases. When you were pregnant, I purchased a car for you because the bike journey was not good. I never manhandled you or anyone. You people are calling me insane and violent.’’

In audio recordings saved on his mobile phone, he pleads with his wife to return to him, and promises to withdraw the divorce petition. The police say he had written letters to Mazumdar’s bosses at her company asking them to convince her to withdraw the 498A case. He also wrote letters to the Union Home Ministry complaining how the 498A section was being “misused by women to frame husbands”.

Addressing no one in particular, in a seven-page letter, he wrote, “I had requested my wife many times to join and live with me but she refused. Since she does not need me and my children, we are going away.’’  Prasad photocopied the letter and couriered it to the Prime Minister’s Office, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, Director General of Police, and others, according to the police.

Prasad never talked about his personal life at work. His colleagues, on condition of anonymity, say he did good work at the college, and was respected for it. “He was easy-going and friendly, but had become withdrawn recently,” said a colleague.

He shared a good bond with his children too. “Frankly, in spite of the bitter relations with his wife, the children were very fond of him and liked going out with him,” said Swaroop. But, he added, “By killing them, he has punished his wife for life.”