Popular Telugu television news channel anchor and poet Swetcha Votarkar (40) died under suspicious circumstances at her residence in Jawaharnagar in Chikkadpally on Friday night, the police said on Saturday.
According to Chikkadpally police inspector Raju Naik said they had received a call from the Swetcha’s neighbours at around 9.30 pm about the incident. “When we entered her room, she was found hanging from the ceiling fan,” Naik said.
An ambulance was called immediately and the paramedic staff confirmed her death, he said, adding that she might have died by suicide due to family problems.
The police called in the clues team, and collected evidence. “No suicide has been found till now. A case of suspicious death was registered based on a complaint filed by Swetcha’s mother. Her body was then shifted to the Gandhi Hospital mortuary for autopsy,” the police inspector said, adding the investigation is going on.
According to preliminary investigations, Swetcha was divorced from her husband Kranthi Kiran in 2014. After the separation, she lived for a few years with her parents, V Shankar and Sridevi, both active in the Leftist movements at their Ramnagar residence.
{{/usCountry}}According to preliminary investigations, Swetcha was divorced from her husband Kranthi Kiran in 2014. After the separation, she lived for a few years with her parents, V Shankar and Sridevi, both active in the Leftist movements at their Ramnagar residence.
{{/usCountry}}“For the past four years, Swetcha had been living alone with her 13-year-old daughter in a penthouse at Sheelam Residency in Jawahar Nagar. She has supposedly been in live-in relationship with another person Purnachandar in the same house,” the police said.
Swetcha, who worked in various Telugu television channels including TV9 as a news anchor, was also very active in the Telangana movement and wrote several poems.
For the past three years, she had been working for T-News television channel promoted by the family of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao. She was recently elected as an executive committee member in the Journalists’ Housing Society elections.
KCR expressed shock over the demise of Swetcha Votarkar and said she was a dedicated journalist and committed to the cause of Telangana.