Five held for 'driving honest' endowment official to suicide

GUNTUR: In a fresh development in the endowments officer Krishnaveni suicide case, Secunderabad police on Tuesday arrested five persons including Ranga Balakrishna, chairman of the Hanuman temple. All the arrested were immediately taken to Secunderabad where they were produced in court and remanded in 14-day judicial custody.
Secunderabad Market police arrested Balakrishna, temple trustee Satyanarayana, priests Papacharyulu and Manikantha and junior assistant Venugopal.Krishnaveni, 31, an assistant commissioner rank officer in the endowments department, was executive officer (EO) at the Hanuman temple located at Lalapet in the Guntur One Town police station area before she committed suicide.
A resident of Secunderabad, Krishnaveni came back from Guntur and hanged herself to the ceiling fan at her house on October 1. Even though there was no suicide note, police took her diary notes about the harassment from temple board members and staff as a prima facie evidence and arrested them.
She alleged that the chairman and other members of the board and staff had harassed her for monetary gains. "Krishnaveni described in the dairy how she was manhandled by the temple staff for stopping their corrupt practices. Due to her strict vigil, the temple savings increased from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 18 lakh in a span of 10 months and the entire temple staff became her enemies," said a Market police official.
In a bid to force Krishnaveni to leave the place, the temple staff even resorted to her character assassination. Police said that the accused called up her mother and made vulgar remarks about Krishnaveni.
The young officer even lodged a complaint with the Guntur police against her tormentors. But it fell on deaf ears as police did not initiate any action due to political pressure.
Sources said that a Congress legislator was backing the board members who had allegedly demanded huge sums of money from Krishnaveni. Considered an upright officer, Krishnaveni resisted the pressures and refused to oblige them. Subsequently, the board members, it is alleged, encouraged the priests to revolt against her citing violation of temple rituals and traditions.
It was at this stage that Krishnaveni met senior officials including the deputy commissioner of endowments in Guntur and other top officials to brief them about the situation prevailing at the temple. However, it is believed that instead of backing her, her seniors asked her to be 'practical' and 'accommodative' in handling the issue.
Hurt by the response from top officials, Krishnaveni committed suicide. The incident created ripples in the endowments department where everyone scrambled to steer clear of the matter. Interestingly, the visuals from the closed circuit television installed in the EO's chamber had been removed even before the police could inspect and gather evidence after her death.
Temple revenues reported almost a 300% jump during Krishnaveni's brief tenure, chiefly due to decisions taken by her.