Highway to hell

The families of the four accused who raped and killed Disha are at a loss

44-Hyderabad-vet Light in darkness: A candlelight vigil in Kolkata in protest of the gang-rape and murder of the Hyderabad vet | Salil Bera

PARAS, DISHEVELLED AND droopy-eyed, smells of alcohol. He is the caretaker of a vacant plot, adjoining the National HWighway 44 and located close to the Tondapally toll gate. This plot is where a 26-year-old veterinary assistant surgeon was gang-raped and murdered by four men on the night of November 27, according to the police remand report. Paras lives in a one-room house on the plot, but was away that fateful night. A devotee of Sai Baba, he now prays to Disha—the name given by the Telangana Police to the vet to protect her identity. “She is my goddess now. I pray to her,” said Paras, a Bihar native. A photograph of hers that was placed by mourners at the plot now has a special place in his room.

“I had told her not to go out that evening. I wanted her to pray, but she just smiled and said she will return soon,” said Disha’s mother.

Tondapally toll is the gateway to Hyderabad’s Outer Ring Road and the quickest route to reach the IT corridor in Greater Hyderabad. At around 6pm on November 27, Disha parked her scooter next to a lorry on the service road near the toll gate, before taking a cab to Gachibowli—home to IT majors like Microsoft and Amazon. She took a share cab to get into the city as two-wheelers are not allowed on the eight-lane road. She returned to the toll gate around 9.30pm. Next morning, her charred body was found 20km away from the toll gate. In that time, Disha was allegedly raped and murdered by lorry driver Mohammed Arif, 26, and cleaners Jollu Shiva, 20, Jollu Naveen Kumar, 20, and Chintakunta Chenna Keshavulu, 21.

“I had told her not to go out that evening,” recalls Disha’s mother at their flat in a gated community in Shamshabad, just 15 minutes away from the toll gate. “I wanted her to pray, but she just smiled and said she will return soon.” There are at least six policemen stationed inside and outside the gated community. “Do you know she used to travel for almost five hours daily, changing buses and then taking a rickshaw to reach her workplace?” asks Disha’s mother. “For 20 years, no woman vet worked in Kollur government clinic as it did not even have a washroom. My daughter took up the challenge and earned praise from local farmers for her work.” Adds Disha’s father: “She was a good student and a wonderful daughter. All the accused should be hanged for what they did to her.”

Disha’s younger sister, meanwhile, is in shock. She was the last person to talk to her—Disha had called her, saying her scooter’s tyre was flat and a few men had offered help but she felt scared. An audio clip of their conversation—recorded on the sister’s phone—has gone viral. The sister, who works at the airport (air traffic control), was on the night shift and reached the toll plaza at around 10:30pm, but could not find Disha. She picked up her mother and rushed to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport police station only to be asked if Disha had any lovers. They were forced to go to another police station—Old Shamshabad police station—as officials cited jurisdiction issues. Finally, a missing person report was lodged in the wee hours. Disha’s father, a government employee who works in another town, came home to join the search. At around 10am, he was called to identify her charred body.

Meanwhile, in Jaklair and Gudigandla, some 100km from Hyderabad, the families of the accused are grappling with the aftermath of the crime. At a busy centre in Jaklair, a youth approaches us, asking, “Are you here for Arif’s family?” L. Naveen says he is Arif’s childhood friend. “During the Ganesh festival, he got drunk, danced and kicked the speakers because he did not like the songs,” he says. “That is the only fight he was involved in. So, all this is quite shocking.” But he cautions: “When he drinks, he turns into something else.”

His parents, Hussain and Maulan Bi, say, “We do not know anything, sir. You people can do whatever you want with him. We are resigned to the fact that we do not have a son.” An only son to sick parents, Arif was to help them add a new room to the house. “We were looking forward to it,” they say. “But he ruined our happiness.” His mother says that Arif told her that he accidentally hit a girl on a scooter. He was tense and did not eat.

According to the remand report, on November 27, Arif and his friends were drinking when they saw Disha park her scooter close to their lorry. They deflated a tyre of her scooter, and when she returned, convinced her to accept their help to fix it. Later, they dragged her to the vacant plot, and allegedly raped and killed her. After “smothering” her, the accused shifted her dead body to the “underbridge at Chattanpalli” and burnt it by “pouring petrol and diesel”. They also dumped her scooter some distance away to avoid suspicion.

Jollu Shiva’s house in Gudigandla adjoins an open drain. His mother is hysterical, wailing and yelling his name. “If he has indeed done that crime, burn him alive,” says his father. “I am saying this even though I know that he is suffering from a life-threatening disease. He is so ill that he vomits blood. How can he drink alcohol?” A family acquaintance says that Shiva has cancer.

Keshavulu’s family lives a few metres away. Villagers remember him as a brash youth, who went against the panchayat to marry a girl of his choice. Jayamma, who is seven months pregnant, says Keshavulu’s kidneys are badly damaged. “He had the first cycle of dialysis a few months ago,” she says. Showing his medical reports, his mother says, “I do not know why he hung out with those people. I want to see my son, but I am scared I will be lynched.”

Naveen’s mother, Lakshmi, is heartbroken. She lost her husband a decade ago and now her son is in jail. “I am his mother, but I do not want to see his face,” she says.

The accused have been remanded to seven days’ police custody. The brutality of their crime led to angry protests across the country and in Parliament, with legislators asking for harsh punishments—from lynching to castration to capital punishment. A fast-track court has been set up to hear the case. But as S. Sudhakar Reddy, former general secretary of the CPI and Disha’s relative, says, “Punishing the accused should not be the end of the story. All the systemic failures have to be corrected to ensure that no other women will face this situation.”

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