They saw her park the scooter: How the Hyderabad gang rape was planned, executed

A 26-year-old veterinary doctor parked her scooter a toll gate in Tondapally, around 10km from the international airport in Shamshabad in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening. She was planning to visit a doctor, according to reports. It was common practice for commuters and others to leave their two-wheelers in the area if they wanted to head into the city. Since the Outer Ring Road that leads to the city does not allow two-wheelers, she took a cab. That was when four men, identified as Mohammad Areef, Chintakunta Chennakesavulu, Jollu Naveen and Jollu Shiva, employed as truck drivers and cleaners, saw her. They were drinking when they saw the victim, according to Times of India       . 

The police remand report based on the statements of the accused in the brutal rape and murder case emerged on Monday. According to multiple media reports, the accused punctured the tyres; when the victim returned, under the pretext of helping her, they approached. It is presumed that the victim made a call to her family around this time. In an audio clip that is out in the public domain, the victim could purportedly be heard crying and telling her sister that she is scared for herself. Her sister advised her to take a cab and come home or stand near the toll booth. The victim even told her sister that she was worried with the way people around her were behaving.

The accused forced her into a nearby bush and confiscated her phone. According to NDTV, after forcing liquor down her throat, the accused took turns to rape her till she fell unconscious and started bleeding. When she started coming back to her senses, the men smothered her to death. The body was later carried to the underpass and set on fire, according to reports. THE WEEK cannot vouch for the veracity of the claims made in the reports. 

As pressure mounted, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday announced setting up of a fast track court for expeditious trial and assured all help to her family as protests against the heinous crime continued. Outpouring of outrage continued on Sunday as religious leaders condemned the heinous rape and murder, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said there can't be any compromise with the dignity of women and children should be taught to always respect them. Three police personnel have been suspended for alleged delay in registering an FIR on a missing complaint by the family of the woman. 

Protests were held at several places on Saturday, with an angry crowd hurling stones at the police personnel, who escorted the four accused to jail from a police station in the Telangana capital, and demanding that the culprits be handed over to them. Some of the protesters demanded death penalty for the accused. "It is not enough if they are taken to court. They should be handed out the same treatment that they gave to the victim," a protester said. "If you cannot do it, hand them over to us," another said.

A district bar association in Telangana announced their decision not to represent the four accused. Mattapally Srinivas, president of the Ranga Reddy Bar Association, said they had taken the decision as "a moral and social responsibility against the heinous crime committed by the accused." We have decided not to offer any legal services to the accused. In such cases, the court may direct the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to appoint a lawyer for them. When the Authority directs any advocate to represent the accused we cannot refuse it, he told PTI. Srinivas further said that some of the sections under which the four were booked by police may carry the death sentence, considering the gravity of the case. The four men, all lorry workers, were booked under Sections 376D (gangrape), 302 (murder),201 (destroying evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

Many lamented that rape incidents continued, despite changes in laws after the Nirbhaya incident in which a 23-year-old paramedic was gang-raped on December 16, 2012. She and a male friend were assaulted in a moving bus as it drove through the streets of New Delhi. She was thrown out of the bus—so grievously injured that her insides were spilling out—along with her male friend near the airport. A fortnight later, on December 29, 2012, she succumbed in a Singapore hospital.

-Inputs from Rahul Devulappalli