Hyderabad: A 29-year-old contract employee working for a private company died by suicide at his residence in Ramagiri, Peddapalli district. The victim’s family alleged that mounting debt from online betting drove him to take his own life. Ramagiri police have registered a case of suspicious death.
The deceased, identified as R Vasanth Kumar, was employed as a heavy vehicle driver at a private firm in Ramagiri. His father, Ravi Shankar Kumar, is an employee of Singareni Collieries Company Limited.
On May 4 afternoon, Ravi Shankar and his wife had stepped out for personal work, leaving only Ravi Shankar’s mother at home. “Vasanth had gone for his morning shift and had not returned by the time we left,” Ravi Shankar said.
“There was no suicide note. The family claims online betting was the cause, but they do not know the specific nature of the betting activities or which websites or apps were involved. Vasanth’s phone is locked, and we have sent it to a forensic lab for data recovery,” said Ramagiri SI Chandra Kumar.
The incident came to light around 6 pm. “We found Vasanth unresponsive and suspected a suicide attempt. With the help of neighbours, we rushed him to a local hospital, where he was declared dead,” Ravi said in his police complaint.
According to preliminary investigation, Ravi told police that in 2024, he had learned Vasanth had borrowed money from local lenders to fund online betting, accumulating debts amounting to ₹4 lakh. “I cleared the ₹4 lakh debt in Dec 2024. I now suspect he borrowed again for betting and fell into debt once more, which may have led him to take this extreme step,” he said.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered under section 194 (suspicious death) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The body was handed over to the family following a postmortem examination.
