On Thursday morning, a charred body of a young woman was found under a culvert on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The 26-year-old Dr. Priyanka Reddy, a veterinarian, was reported missing on Wednesday night by her family members and after a few hours, was found dead. The police recovered her smothered and burnt body. According to the police, before being burnt, she was gang-raped and then strangulated to death in Shamshabad (about 20 km from Hyderabad).
Four men have been arrested in connection with the case. The accused–three 20-year-old men and a 26-year-old man–were arrested within 48 hours of the brutal murder. They have been identified as Mohammad Areef (the prime accused), Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Chintakunta Chennakesavulu, who are all lorry drivers and cleaners.
The gruesome details of the murder have shaken the whole nation. #JusticeForPriyankaReddy is what the country is demanding.
According to the cops, it all happened within an hour. Investigations revealed that while on her way back home from the hospital, Priyanka parked her bike at a toll booth and took a cab to visit a dermatologist. That’s when Areef and Shiva saw her and hatched a plan. They punctured her bike and waited for her return.
Around 9:00 pm: Priyanka returned and found that both the tyres of her bike were busted.
9:20 pm: Areef and Shiva offered to help. To gain her trust, Shiva took the bike with him for a few minutes and returned claiming that no shops were open. Priyanka had already called her sister saying she was feeling scared. Minutes later, she was pulled into a compound nearby with the help of the other two accused and was gang-raped.
9:22 pm: The victim called and spoke to her sister Bhavya Reddy
10:20 pm: Her sister tried to reach her again, but the victim’s phone was switched off. By this time, the accused smothered her body.
10:28 pm: The four accused left the place. While Areef and Naveen abandoned her bike at Kothur village after removing the number plate, the other two left with the body in their vehicle.
1:00 am: They tried to buy petrol at a couple of locations.
2:30 am: They set her body on fire under a bridge under NH44.
“After 11 pm, we went looking for her at the toll booth. We then decided to go to the cops but we went from one police station to another for more than half an hour. They couldn’t decide if the case falls in their jurisdiction,” Priyanka’s father told NDTV. He added, “We thought her phone was off because it had no battery.”
Priyanka’s sister was the only one who spoke to her before she went missing. Recalling the conversation, she said: “When she called up first, I asked her if there was an accident as she told me that she was scared. She narrated how the men took her bike, came back and told her repair shop was closed. She told them ‘I can go’, but they insisted on helping. When I called up again after 15 minutes, her phone was off.”
On Thursday morning, Priyanka’s clothes, handbag, footwear and a liquor bottle were found by the police near the toll booth where she had parked her bike.
The nation is outraged at this yet another inhuman act of crime against women. The incident came to light a year after India was declared the world’s most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual violence, human trafficking, domestic servitude, forced marriages, female infanticide and forced slave labour.
The country is standing up and asking the government to take action in an attempt to provide #JusticeForPriyankaReddy, including these Bollywood celebrities.
There are thousands of such tweets doing rounds in the hope of justice for all the Priyanka Reddys of India. And according to netizens, there’s only one solution to rape – a death sentence.
As per the latest developments in the case, the four accused won’t be given any legal representation as stated by The Ranga Reddy district Bar council as well as the Mahabubnagar Bar Council and the Shadnagar Bar Association.
Featured Image: Twitter
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