Dentist rang brother 10 times after killing Preethi Reddy

Dentist Harshwardhan Narde rang his brother in India more than 10 times when police called demanding to know where his former girlfriend was saying he feared investigators suspected him over her disappearance.

• Vigil held for murdered dentist
• Body of missing dentist found
• Ex-lover’s text to concerned friend

Panicked dentist Harshwardhan Narde rang his brother in India more than 10 times when police called demanding to know where his former girlfriend was saying he feared investigators suspected him over her disappearance.

Narde, 34, was in the process of being matched with a potential bride in India when he reconnected with Preethi Reddy at a dentists’ convention at St Leonards, his brother Alok Narde told The Daily Telegraph.

Preethi Reddy’s body was found last Tuesday. Picture: L. Costa Photography

Harshwardhan Narde called his brother 10 times on the day he died.

He was seen by colleagues chatting amicably to his on-off ex at the convention where she told him she had been introduced to a new partner through their parents.

She was last seen captured on CCTV in the lobby of his hotel at the Sydney CBD Swissotel in Market St during the early hours of last Sunday.

MORE NEWS:

Caught: Casino croupier hides $5k chip in sock

The Great River Run: Murray Darling crisis

De Belin’s pregnant girlfriend throws a baby shower

Her body was found stabbed and stuffed into a suitcase and left in the boot of her car in Kingsford, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs at 9.30pm on Tuesday.

The day before Dr Reddy’s body was found Narde crashed his car driving into the back of a truck at Willow Tree, south of Tamworth, and died instantly as his vehicle exploded.

Dr Reddy was captured on CCTV inside McDonald’s.

Dr Reddy was farewelled at a crematorium in Minchinbury on Saturday, at which hundreds of mourners paid their respects.

“Before he died he called me around 10 times on Monday and told me police had called him twice and that Nithya (Preethi’s sister) also called asking where she was,” Narde’s brother, Alok, told The Daily Telegraph from Sangli in Maharashtra.

“He said he was worried they all suspected him for her disappearance.

“He said he had offered to go to the Reddy family house to help clarify matters and help find her but Nithya didn’t want him to go, unless he could say where she was,” Mr Narde, 37, a physician, added.

“In the last phone call Harsh told me he was going with a friend to the station to tell them he was one of the last persons to see Preethi, he sounded worried and said ‘why are they calling me twice?’”

At this stage there was no suggestion Dr Reddy, 32, had been murdered.

Vigils were held for the murdered dentist. Picture: AAP

“Harsh was buying a practice in a new city and was happy to be selected for a match (marriage) with a woman who would move to Australia to begin a family with him, our parents in Sangli were pushing ahead with this with his approval,” Mr Narde went on.

“He said his relationship with Preethi had fallen apart, because of the long distance, he was initially saddened by that, but said it was time to get married now he had established himself professionally.

“She had previously told him she been introduced to new man by their respective parents and they spoke about that again at the convention,” he said.

“The only two people who knew what really happened are Harsh and Preethi but they are no more now.”

Advocacy organisation Doctors Against Violence Against Women (DAVAW) held Saturday vigils in honour of Dr Reddy in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Narde, who had been contacting Dr Reddy via text and Facebook in the six months since she ended their three-year relationship, refused to accept it was over, a friend said.

He had driven 400km from Tamworth to see Dr Reddy at a dentist convention where he reportedly pleaded for a second chance and told her of his plan to open a practice in Sydney to be near her.

Harshwardhan Narde died after crashing his car into a truck.

Police believe Narde stabbed Preethi Reddy in his hotel room.

Friends say he “guilted” her into having dinner one final time on Saturday, telling her he was deeply depressed over their breakup.

Dr Reddy was captured on CCTV inside McDonald’s at the Strand Arcade in Sydney’s CBD about 2.15am on Sunday.

She was seen framed on CCTV footage standing at the counter before she left alone and walked south on Market St.

She was also seen on camera entering the Swissotel foyer about five minutes later. A NSW Police spokesman said Dr Reddy stayed in the hotel with “a man known to her” overnight.

Police believe Narde, 34, stabbed Dr Reddy to death in his room at the Swissotel sometime on Sunday afternoon.

“Something in him cracked and he became enraged­, he wouldn’t accept it was over and had not left her alone since she broke it off,” a source close to the investigation­ said.