Hyderabad: A veterinarian was murdered, raped and was found dead in Telangana under a National Highway 44 bridge November 26. Four men are accused of the crime. The case has sent shockwaves across the country.
Here are some of the chilling facts about the incident.
- Victim in trouble, calls sister: Police say that victim was approached by the four men after a tire on her motorcycle punctured around 9:30 p.m. at the Tondupally toll plaza of Outer Ring Road at Shamshabad on the close to Hyderabad. Authorities say the men offered to fix the tire. She was on her way back from the dermatologist, following a day of work at a veterinary hospital. At around 10:00 p.m., the victim called her sister to tell her what was going on. After the phone call, that’s when police say the assault began. Police say the men sexually assaulted the victim and suffocated her to death.
- Body found 15 Miles from where she was raped: Cyberabad commissioner V.C. Sajjanar told the media that at 10:28 p.m., the suspects left the area to find somewhere to dispose of the body. Sajjanar said that body was burned around 3:00 a.m. in the area of Chattanpally, around 15 miles from where she had been raped. Salljanar said that the victim’s family went to the police at 11:30 p.m. and then to the area where the victim had called from. The search went on till 5:00 a.m.
- Police Negligence: There is anger in India over a perceived slowness on the part of the police. The reports say that the victim’s family did not get a swift response when they first went to the station. The local police had made comments alleging that she had eloped with someone. “We lost a lot of time moving from one police station to another. Had the police acted without wasting time, at least my sister would have been alive,” the victim’s mother said. Victim’s mother said that her daughter’s killers should be “burned alive.”
- WHY DID SHE CALL SISTER NOT POLICE: TELANGANA MINISTER: In a shocking remark on the rape and murder of the veterinary doctor, Telangana Home Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali asked why the “educated” doctor called her sister and not the police. He also said the victim should have called the police instead of calling her sister. Mohammad Mahmood Ali said the “doctor was educated” and it was “unfortunate” that the deceased veterinary doctor dialed her family and not the police. “We are saddened by the incident; police are alert and controlling crime. It is unfortunate that she called her sister and not ‘100’, had she called ‘100’ she could have been saved,” news agency ANI quoted Mohammad Mahmood Ali as saying. He later clarified his remarks saying she was like his own daughter. “I’m deeply saddened by the mishap. She was like my own daughter. Stringent punishment will be given to culprit. When I met her parents, tears rolled down my eyes as well,” the Telangana minister said.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi expressed shock about the rape and murder of the woman in Telangana.
“How anyone could subject another human being to such terrible, unprovoked violence is beyond imagination. My thoughts & prayers are with the victim’s family at this time of immense grief,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said he has been in regular touch with officials of the Telangana government so that those involved in the woman’s murder were punished.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs will send an advisory to all states as a precautionary measure so that no such incident takes place in future,” he told reporters outside Parliament in New Delhi.
CHARRED BODY OF ANOTHER WOMAN FOUND IN SAME AREA: Another charred body of a woman was found in the same area just hours after the Cyberabad Police arrested four men in connection with the rape and murder of a doctor in Telangana. The dead body was found near a temple at a deserted place. Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjana said, “Body was found in an open area on the outskirts of Shamshabad. It is being moved to a government hospital.” It is yet to be established if the woman was sexually assaulted.
A case has been registered by the Samshabad Police and a probe has been initiated in the case.