Police suspect Bhargavi’s make-up assistant might have tipped off Praveen Kumar about the actor’s movements in the city.
According to sources, Venkat, 19, had been working as a personal make-up assistant for Bhargavi for some time, and Praveen was in touch with him. “The call logs of the cell phones of both Bhargavi and Praveen show calls were either made to or received from Venkat’s mobile on Tuesday morning,” a police officer told TOI.
Since the time they noticed Venkat’s mobile number in both the mobile phones of Bhargavi and Praveen, the police have been trying to contact him on his cell phone. “It has been switched off. We suspect that he absconded due to fear,” the officer said.
After attending a film shoot in Palakollu, Bhargavi reached the city on Monday for a scheduled shoot here. Police suspect that Venkat, after calling Bhargavi, might have passed on the information about her being alone in the city to Praveen Kumar.
Police said that they had information that Praveen Kumar purchased the dagger in Nellore and boarded a bus to Hyderabad at around 8 pm on Monday night. After reaching the city in the wee hours of Tuesday, he contacted Venkat again.
Ramesh, the driver who went to pick up Bhargavi, told the police that Venkat came to the car and kept the make-up kit inside the vehicle. “After that, he told Ramesh that he would be back in a minute after buying cigarettes. But Venkat did not return after that. We suspect that Venkat might have brought the make-up kit from Bhargavi’s house,” an investigating officer said.
The contact address given by Venkat in the application form submitted for a mobile connection is in Chittoor. But the police said Venkat had been staying in the city for sometime now. Police are trying to contact the film and television crew members with whom Bhargavi had worked to trace the whereabouts of Venkat.
Meanwhile, the doctors, who performed post-mortem on the actor at the Gandhi Hospital, told the police that she died due to stabbing. “One of her lungs was punctured and heart also suffered stab injury. Doctors said that the two injuries caused her death,” deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (west zone) C Ravi Verma said.
The suicide note found in the trousers of Praveen Kumar will be sent to the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratories (APFSL) for handwriting confirmation. For the samples of Praveen’s handwriting, police are in touch with his family members in Nellore.
The bodies of Bhargavi and Praveen were handed over to the family members on Wednesday afternoon.
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