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The senior surgeon from Hyderabad who had allegedly fired at and injured his former colleague and business partner late Monday afternoon was found dead at his farmhouse in Moinabad, on the outskirts of the city, in the early hours of Tuesday.
The police said the accused, Dr Shashi Kumar, committed suicide — shooting himself dead with the same .32-mm revolver, a licensed weapon, with which he had allegedly shot at his partner, Dr Uday Kumar Rachakonda. In a suicide brief note he allegedly left behind, Kumar accused a third business partner of firing the shot.
The police reached the farmhouse after tracing Kumar’s cellphone location. The last call traced from his phone went to his wife just past midnight. The police have spoken with Kumar’s wife — an officer said he had apologised to her for the mess he had created, and subsequently shot himself.
Read | Hyderabad doctor opens fire at ex-colleague over financial spat
The suicide note has led police to believe that Kumar thought Rachakonda had died, and therefore killed himself, as he was certain he would be implicated in the case. Kumar had also blamed Rachakonda and the third partner in their joint business venture — one Dr Sai Kumar, an anaesthetist like Rachakonda, both of whom had once worked under Kumar at his hospital — for teaming up and causing him financial troubles, according to the police.
Kumar reportedly wrote that he believed Rachakonda had died after Sai Kumar had opened fire at him and he fled. The three were in Rachakonda’s car when the incident took place.
On Monday, the police had said that Kumar had a heated argument at a restaurant in Himayatnagar area of the city with the other two over investments in Laurel Hospital, a 120-bed medical establishment they were setting up. Finding the restaurant too noisy, they reportedly left and were headed for a quieter place to discuss the issue in Rachakonda’s car.
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