Panaji: After a Goa court ordered the local police to probe the death of 23-year-old Neha Mulagalapalli taking into account that there may have been foul play, six people were booked on Friday on charges of murder.
Neha died after a night out with her friends in September 2021. She had been visiting a club in North Goa hours before her death. Though the police did not originally register a case of murder, Neha’s father Dr Mulagulapalli approached the judicial magistrate who earlier this week ordered the police to register a case and investigate it from the murder angle.
The police have booked Poosapati Pruthivi, Dandu Sravanthi, Dr K Karthik, Sujay Sampreeth and Dolly under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and have begun an investigation.
The incident occurred in September 2021 when Dr Neha Mulagalapalli, a resident of Mancherial, Telangana visited Goa to celebrate her birthday with her cousins Leela Adithya, Keerti Raka and Karthik Parshuram. They were joined by her friend Dandu Sravanthi and Sravanthi’s boyfriend Poosapathi Prudhvi who joined them at the villa at Candolim where they had put up on the evening of September 25.
Later that evening, they went out for dinner at Britto’s Bar and Restaurant at Baga beach and returned to the villa by 11 pm. At the restaurant, they were joined by one Dr K Karthik, a friend of Sravanthi who also returned to the rented villa where the group was staying.
{{/usCountry}}Later that evening, they went out for dinner at Britto’s Bar and Restaurant at Baga beach and returned to the villa by 11 pm. At the restaurant, they were joined by one Dr K Karthik, a friend of Sravanthi who also returned to the rented villa where the group was staying.
{{/usCountry}}After dinner, the group also met Sujay, Sampreeth and Dolly who joined them at the villa after Dr K Karthik persuaded them to. Karthik left by around 11:40 pm.
Since it was Neha’s birthday the next day, she was flooded with calls from 12 am onwards during which her father Dr Mulagalapalli Phani and mother wished her over a video call and kept her engaged until at least 1:15 am while other relatives were speaking to her too.
Her father, in his complaint to the police revealed that at the time he spoke to her to wish her she was “healthy and fit” and showed no signs of discomfort.
Later that night, Dandu Sravanthi and Poosapathi Prudhvi took Neha to a club at Morjim beach further north and she accompanied them. Her cousins, however, did not go.
“At around 6:30 am on September 26, I received a call from a doctor at the Primary Health Centre Calangute saying that my daughter was brought to the hospital dead. Due to the sudden demise of our daughter, my family members and I went into deep shock,” Neha’s father said in his complaint to the police.
“She was a healthy and fit, 23 years old and full of life. Her sudden passing was a big shock to us,” he told HT.
Sravanthi and Prudhvi brought Neha home in an unconscious state at around 5 am and after waking her cousins asked them to help take her to her room.
But noticing that her condition was “not good” her cousins rushed her to hospital along with Sravanthi. Doctors at the Community Health Centre Candolim pronounced her dead upon arrival. Interestingly, Dandu Sravanthi accompanied them to the health centre, but her boyfriend Prudhvi “was reluctant to accompany them to the hospital”.
“We, being doctors, tried to find a reason for the sudden demise of my daughter. We came to the conclusion that there was foul play in her sudden demise. I suspect Poosapati Pruthivi is involved in the death of my otherwise healthy daughter,” Dr Mulagulapalli said in his complaint.
“Despite my complaint the police didn’t register the case as one of murder and sought to close the case. They registered the statements of those who were present and concluded that it didn’t warrant a case. I even asked them to collect the CCTV evidence of the club, which wasn’t done,” Dr Mulagulapalli said.
A police official confirmed that a case has been registered and that investigation has commenced. He added that they are waiting for a report from the forensic lab. No arrests have yet been made.