TV actor's husband in custody

Doctors say Hemashree had suffered assault injuries on head, face

The police took Surendra Babu, husband of TV actor Hemashree, into custody on Wednesday, following allegations that she was murdered. Hemashree was reported dead after she took ill on her way to Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.

“She took ill on our way to Anantapur and I brought her back to the City, but she was declared brought dead at the hospital,” the police quoted Babu as saying.

According to doctors at the Forensic department of the Victoria Hospital, Hemashree had suffered injuries on her head and face.  

“The head injury looked more like it was caused due to assault and not due to accident.
Samples have been sent to the forensic lab to find out if there was any poisoning involved,” said one of the doctors. The results of the samples are expected in a week’s time.

The police said they registered a case of ‘death under suspicious circumstances’.
Nagaraj, Hemashree’s father, has lodged a complaint alleging that Babu had murdered his daughter. Based on this, the police have taken Babu into custody and are interrogating him.

Asked why his daughter was not taken to a hospital in Anantapur, but driven all the way back to Bangalore, Nagaraj reportedly told the police that she had been complaining for some time now about her husband and had even mentioned more than once about staying separately. “Her injuries also suggest that he may have killed her,” the police quoted Nagaraj as saying.

While her father has blamed Babu for the death of Hemashree, some of her friends have blamed her parents for her death. They said that her parents, without having properly enquired about Babu, had her married off to him, against her will.

Forced marriage

According to the police, Hemashree had complained at more than one police station that Babu had lied about his age before their marriage  and that her parents had forcibly taken her to Tirupati and got her married.

She had lodged complaints that she did not want to live with him, at the Ulsoor Gate women’s police station, Cubbon Park police station and Chennamanakere police
station.