The police has located the mobile phone of kidnapped doctor Harsha Reddy on Wednesday at Suryapet in Nalgonda district. Four police teams are searching for the missing doctor in Nalgonda and Vijayawada districts. East Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police Y. Gangadhar said a special team from the East Zone Commissioner’s task force has also joined the mission. Police suspect the phone was thrown away by the kidnappers. “As Suryapet is on the way to Vijayawada, a police team was sent there also,” Mr Gangadhar said. Since the hometown of the doctor is in Vijayawada, the police suspect that he could have been taken there.
There is still some mystery about whether it is a kidnapping, as senior police officials are yet to confirm the same. East Zone DCP Gangadhar has expressed doubts about the kidnap story, saying that the doctor must be absconding for some reason. According to Dr Reddy’s friend, Mr Hemanta Kumar, the doctor left for home from the hospital in the afternoon, but didn't reach his residence at MCH Colony, which is just half a kilometre away. “As we couldn't find him in his room and hospital, we called him on his mobile phone, which continued to be out of reach for long. So I lodged a complaint with the police,” Mr Kumar said.
Police said that no one in the locality saw anybody abducting the doctor. “The way to his home from the hospital was a little crowded, and nobody had seen a kidnapping incident on Monday afternoon,” a police official said. Dr Harsha Reddy’s parents, who live in Vijayawada, and his wife, who is a gynaecologist in Manipal, came to the city on Tuesday night.