HYDERABAD: Heart-rending scenes were witnessed at the
Moosapet apartment of 36-year-old
Telugu television news presenter V Radhika Reddy, who committed suicide due to depression late on
Sunday night. The day after, as her pyre was being lit at ESI cremation grounds in Sanathnagar, her 14-year-old autistic child, who failed to fathom the harsh reality, tried to wake her up. “Mummy akkada undhi” (mommy is there), he told relatives even as they grappled with the trauma of the child. Incidentally, April 2 is
World Autism Awareness Day.
Radhika Reddy had been sinking into depression for past few months and had anchored a TV debate on stress and anxiety 15 days ago. Her show was pivoted around suicides by Class 10 and Intermediate students due to exam stress.
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On Sunday, her last day in this world, Radhika read the prime time news bulletin at 9 pm at her Banjara hills office and left for her parents’ home in a cab around 9.40 pm. After reaching the residence in the second floor of the apartment an hour later, she jumped to death from the terrace on the fifth floor.
V Manik Reddy, father of Radhika Reddy, told TOI, “We told the boy her mother died, but he can’t understand. And he continued playing. He walked up to the mother’s body at the apartment and told ‘Lee Amma’ (wake up mother). The boy is studying at a special school for autistic children at Ameerpet. Radhika would instill confidence in me whenever I worried about the child. She was suffering from depression for past few months and undergoing treatment at Asha Hospitals. She would take medication, but was not consistent with the treatment.”
Relatives and co-staffers attended the last rites of Radhika Reddy at ESI in large numbers.
J Sangappa, a senior staffer of the TV channel, told TOI: “Parents, sister and other family members of Radhika are in a state of shock after her suicide. Everyone who came for the cremation was moved by the sight of the boy trying to cling to her mother. Her personal life issues too affected her.”
News presenter V Radhika Reddy.
