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Heart patient brutally thrashed by Tirumala guards for standing in ladies queue, dies after 100 days' coma

  • 56-year old Padmanabham did not know he was standing in the wrong queue at the Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala.
  • He was brutally thrashed by two women guards and a constable, despite pleas of mercy from his family members.
  • He was rushed to the hospital where he breathed his last after being in coma for 100 days.
Heart patient brutally thrashed by Tirumala guards for standing in ladies queue dies after 100 days coma

Thota Padmanabham, 56, didn't know this would be his last pilgrimage to Tirupati and that his cause of death would be the place that he revered the most. In the last week of March, he had visited the TTD with 9 of his family members, but landed up at the SVIMS hospital in Tirupati for standing in the wrong queue by mistake. 

A native of Eluru in West Godavari, he was in coma for the past 100 days. He was severely beaten up by TTD guards for standing in a ladies' queue by mistake. They kept on beating him till he fainted. His family members kept pleading to them that he was a heart patient and that it was a mistake, but the security guards, comprising two women and a man, kept on hurling blows at him. He was rushed to Aswani Hospital in Tirumala and later to SVIMS in Tirupati.

After his death, his relatives and Jana Satta activists staged a protest before the mortuary at SVIMS. They opposed post-mortem and demanded stringent action against the security guards and justice for the family. They have been taken into custody for interrogation. 

His relatives also alleged that none of the officials from the TTD bothered to inquire about his health in the hospital all these days. Meanwhile, the Tirumala One Town police registered a case under section 308 after examining the footage and other evidence. This section attracts imprisonment for seven years or less, or fine or both. The accused, however, were arrested and obtained bail after 20 days in prison. 

While Padmanabham's children demanded more stringent punishment, Lok Satta State general secretary Bala Subhramanyam demanded that Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia be paid to the family besides a job in the TTD. He also reportedly said that Padmanabham was the only breadwinner in the family and his son is unemployed.

Some media reports also suggest that TTD officials have announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for next to the kin of Padmanabham.

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