The Jammikunta police have registered a case of suspicious death over the recent sudden death of Vangara Nagaraju (39), a resident of Nagampet village in Jammikunta mandal, while volunteering for a clinical drug trial with a laboratory in Bengaluru.
Jammikunta Inspector P. Prashanth Reddy told The Hindu on Saturday that Nagaraju had come in contact with some persons in Hyderabad and registered as a volunteer to undergo clinical trial and signed an agreement with the laboratory on May 25 by accepting all terms and conditions.
He was reportedly taking a drug prepared by the laboratory to check sleeplessness.
On May 29, he came to his village from Hyderabad, and complained of illness following which he was admitted to a local hospital for treatment. Later, on June 2, he died.
Family unaware
The family members assumed it was a natural death due to sunstroke. After his death, they chanced upon the agreement papers written and signed in Telugu and hence, contacted the laboratory in Bengaluru.
The laboratory summoned the victim’s wife Anasuya as she was named as nominee by Nagaraju.
After returning from Bengaluru,the family lodged a complaint with the police at Jammikunta stating that Nagaraju died due to the clinical drug trial.
The police registered a case of suspicious death and are investigating.
Postmortem
On Saturday, the police wrote to the Kakatiya Medical College to depute a team of forensic doctors to conduct post-mortem after exhuming the body in the village.
A team of doctors from KMC would conduct post-mortem in the presence of tahsildar tentatively on Monday or Tuesday, the police official said.