Sensational revelations have emerged in the Vijayawada Gade Saikrishna missing case, which had sent shockwaves across the state. SIT officials have confirmed that this is not a simple missing case — it is a custodial death caused by police brutality. Suspended CI Nagaraju of Krishnalanka, who was arrested in connection with the case, was produced before the 2nd Additional Judicial Magistrate Court in Vijayawada, which remanded him to 14 days in judicial custody. He has since been shifted to Nellore jail.
What the SIT Report Reveals
The investigation was initiated based on a complaint filed by Saikrishna’s mother Vijayalakshmi, during which 17 witnesses were examined. On May 8, Task Force police took Saikrishna into custody in Markapuram and handed him over to CI Nagaraju. Despite a non-bailable warrant against Saikrishna, he was illegally detained without being produced before a court within the legally mandated 24 hours. The SIT found that Saikrishna was held in custody at the police station itself — a delivery boy reportedly saw him there between May 6 and 8, and a local Sub-Inspector also confirmed seeing him at the station. The SIT informed the court that Saikrishna died in custody between June 6 and 19 due to severe torture and injuries inflicted by police.
Cover-Up and Evidence Destruction
After Saikrishna’s death, CI Nagaraju and his team committed an even more heinous act to cover their tracks. The body was made to disappear from the police station itself. To destroy evidence, crucial CCTV footage from Krishnalanka Police Station was deliberately deleted — an entire month’s footage from May 1 to June 1 was wiped out. The SIT stated that it is yet to be established who deleted the footage and why. CI Nagaraju also misled the High Court by falsely claiming that Saikrishna was never in their custody. The truth came to light only after his mother filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court seeking her son’s whereabouts. The SIT has now requested the court to hand CI Nagaraju back to police custody in order to locate where the body was concealed.