Jyothi Udaya was on her way back home from work, when we called her on Saturday afternoon and informed that her attacker had been arrested.
CCTV footage of Jyothi Uday being attacked by a man inside an ATM in Bengaluru
Udaya responded to the news with equanimity. ''Police are yet to contact me,'' she said, requesting us to keep her posted.
By evening, the arrest was officially confirmed by the Chittoor police. Madhukar Reddy, the accused, was nabbed from Nimmanapalliki village under Madanappalli division, Andhra Pradesh.
Udaya, a Corporation Bank employee, was brutally attacked by Reddy with a machete at an ATM kiosk in Bengaluru in November 2013. He took away Udaya's wallet containing Rs 2000, her mobile phone, driving license and ATM cards and pulled down the shutter before leaving. He later sold off the mobile phone for Rs 500.
Udaya lay unconscious in a pool of blood for more than three hours, before being taken to hospital. The attack left her with a fractured skull, with pieces of bone driven into the brain. She was partially paralysed following the incident.
'' I am no longer the person I used to be. I don't know how long I can work like this,'' said Udaya with a painful smile when we met her in 2014.
After committing the crime, Reddy moved to Kerala and then to Hyderabad, where his parents live in. Later, he started visiting Madanappalli, his hometown at Chittor in Andhra Pradesh. ''When he visited this time, we nabbed him and he confessed to having committed the crime, '' said G. Srinivas, Superintendent of Police, Chittoor District.
Reddy, according to the police, is a serial murderer. In 2005, he was arrested on charges of a murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011 but absconded while being taken to hospital from Kadapa Central Prison. He committed five murders in the next three years.
