Sai Krishna’s alleged custodial death case: More details stumble out

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A file photo of investigating officials arriving at Krishnalanka police station as part of the Gade Sai Krishna's custodial death case. File Photo | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which questioned Gulivindala Suresh (Accused 4), in the alleged custodial death of Gade Sai Krishna at Krishnalanka police station, said that Mr. Suresh confessed that he had seen Sai Krishna in the police station during interrogation, and later in a private house at Ranigari Thota, where he reportedly died on May 12.

The then Krishnalanka police station Circle Inspector S.S.V.V. Nagaraju, who is Accused No.1 in the case, and head constables – Ashok Kumar (Accused 2) and Nani (Accused 3) – cremated the body to destroy the evidence, Mr. Suresh reportedly told the investigation officers.

The NTR Commissionerate’s Task Force police, along with the Krishnalanka police, went to Markapuram on May 5, 2026, and picked up Sai Krishna, against whom two Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) were pending. He was handed over to Krishnalanka police on the next day.

Sai Krishna’s mother, Gade Vijaya Lakshmi, said she saw her son crying with pains in the police station, and urged Mr. Nagaraju not to beat her son and send him home.

After making several rounds to the police station and to the NTR Police Commissionerate, Vijaya Lakshmi filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court on June 2, as the whereabouts of Sai Krishna were not known and as if he had evaporated from the police station.

SIT, probing into the case, has arrested six persons so far. Mr. Suresh, who was Accused No. 4 and a close associate of CI Nagaraju, has been absconding for the last few months. Police police launched a search for him.

Mr. Suresh surrendered before the SIT, and he was produced in a court in Vijayawada on Friday (September 18, 2026), which remanded him to judicial custody till September 24. He was shifted to Nuzvid Sub-Jail.

Mr. Suresh reportedly told the investigation officers that he had seen Mr. Nagaraju, and head constables Ashok Kumar and Nani interrogating Sai Krishna in Krishnalanka police station on May 7.

Again when he went to the police station, the accused took him to a private vacant building, located at Ranigari Thota, where Sai Krishna was seen in pathetic condition on May 12.

The victim reportedly told Mr. Suresh he was being beaten severely every day since he was brought to the police station, and probably that might have been the cause of his death, the SIT officials said in the remand report.

According to the SIT officials, Mr. Suresh had told the officials that Sai Krishna collapsed while he was talking to him, and later the head constables (Accused 2 and Accused 3), checked the pulse of the victim and confirmed that he had died.

Following the directions of suspended CI, Mr. Nagaraju, head constables Ashok Kumar and Nani, shifted the body after wrapping it with a blanket on a two-wheeler to Swargapuri crematorium, around midnight on the same day, and Mr. Suresh followed them on a bike.

The trio cremated the body in the burial ground (Swargapuri). Again, on May 18, Mr. Nagaraju and Mr. Suresh visited the crematorium and verified the place where Sai Krishna’s body was cremated and checked for remains of the victim, if anything was left.

Mr. Suresh also disclosed that he had deleted the photographs of the deceased which were taken on another head constable, Satyanarayana’s, phone. The photos were deleted as per the instructions of suspended CI Mr. Nagaraju, Mr. Suresh reportedly told the SIT officials.

Further, the accused met the maternal uncles of Sai Krishna – Mullapudi Navarang and Nageswara Rao — near Kolanukonda village in Guntur district, and tried for a compromise.

The accused CI reportedly accepted to pay money to Mr. Navarang and Mr. Nageswara Rao, and tried for a settlement, but they refused, the SIT officials said in the remand report.

The case is under investigation, the SIT officers said.

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