A dead body was discovered in the water tank of the Old City of Hindupur in Nalgonda Municipality today, causing widespread panic among residents. The locals had unknowingly been consuming the contaminated water.
The body was found during a routine inspection. The man was identified as Avula Vamsi, a resident of Hanuman Nagar, who had been missing since May 24. His family had filed a complaint with the police.
Nalgonda municipal commissioner KV Ramanachary later told NDTV that the body had been in the water for two to three days. This was confirmed by the postmortem examination, which also established that it was a case of suicide.
The tank served 1,500 households. There has been no health-related complaint, he added.
The incident has sparked outrage among locals, who accuse the municipal staff of negligence and endangering public health.
The locals recalled a similar instance in Nagarjunasagar, where municipal authorities supplied water to people from an overhead tank in which around 30 to 40 bodies of dead monkeys were found floating.
The lid of the tank had been left open and the monkeys had got in to drink water. But they could not come out and drowned.
The police have registered a case and are investigating the circumstances surrounding Vamsi's death, to determine whether it was a case of accident, suicide or homicide.
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