Unidentified couple’s body found in ORR

The bodies of an elderly couple were found in the bushes on the Outer Ring Road median at Velimela village in Bhanur, in Sangareddy district on Thursday morning. The police suspect the couple committed suicide by consuming poison, but no clues supporting this suspicion were recovered from the crime scene.

The police have alerted their counterparts across the state and shared photographs of the deceased in case a case of missing person was reported.

At around 6 am, the ORR patrolling team noticed the bodies of a man and a woman, in their later 60s lying in the bushes. They immediately informed the BDL Bhanur police station, which despatched a forensics team and dog squad to Velimela village where the bodies were found.

No external injuries were seen on the bodies of the victims and there was no bottle or other material lying there that would support the suspicion that they could have consumed poison.

BDL Bhanur police station circle inspector Venugopal Reddy said, “There are no clues about the couple, except that the woman had Elephantiasis in her right leg. The man is about 70 and the woman 65. “Efforts are continuing to get the deceased identified.”

He said that the man was wearing a white, red and blue check shirt, and black trousers and the woman was wearing a pale orange coloured saree.

Though there are several CCTV cameras installed on the ORR, poor maintenance caused them to be non-functional, delaying the investigation by the police to get clues regarding the couple.

A police official from Bhanur police station said, “We have tried to retrieve footage from CCTV cameras installed on the ORR, to check how the couple came on to the busy ORR during the early hours, but they are defunct. We were told they have been defunct for the last few days due to some technical glitch.”

The locals in the neighbouring villages are also being asked to share information if they know a woman with Elephantiasis, an easily discernible disease.

“For now, the bodies are in the Patancheru area hospital mortuary. We will wait for two days, collect DNA samples and then cremate the bodies,” said the police.