HYDERABAD: Family members of the Hyderabad veterinarian, who was allegedly raped and brutally murdered by four youths here, have accused the police of lapses in investigating their complaint. The initial resolve shown by the cops weakened as time passed by, the family said, adding that the situation would have been completely different had they continued in the same spirit.
Speaking to Express, her sister said that after the vet's mobile was found switched off, she waited for some time and went to the toll plaza. "I was in office when she called me for the last time. My superiors arranged a vehicle for me and a colleague had accompanied me to the toll plaza. We first
searched there and also inquired with a few passers-by, but nobody had any clue," she said.
Around 11pm on Wednesday, the victim's sister and her colleague went to the RGI airport police station and informed the night duty staff who collected the details and rushed to the toll plaza along with them. The cops inquired with drivers of vehicles parked at the spot and also went to the CCTV control room at the toll plaza. They initially found that she had parked her scooter and walked on to the Outer Ring Road, but could not track her return.
It was learnt later that the police teams which visited the toll plaza did not make any effort to search the open plot located just beside.
The victim's sister and her colleague returned to the RGI airport police station to lodge a formal written complaint but were told that due to jurisdiction issues, they had to lodge a complaint with the Shamshabad police station, which is around 800 metres from the RGI airport police station. After they went there and lodged a complaint, a missing case was registered and the investigation formally began.
Another complaint by relatives is that while the victim's sister was moving back and forth between RGI police station, the toll plaza and then the Shamshabad police station, only male personnel accompanied her. From the time she visited the RGI police station first at 11pm till she arrived at Shamshabad police station around 2.45am on Thursday, there were no women staff to accompany her.
The vet's sister further stated that police also asked if the victim had a boyfriend or was in regular touch with any men. They also asked if she spoke on her mobile phone for long durations. Instead of inquiring into the facts, such questions from police have only hurt the family more, she said.
The victim's mother, a homemaker, demanded that the accused be burnt alive in full public view in the same manner that her daughter was killed. "She was an innocent girl who had come this far with a lot of hard work, but the evil desires of a few drunkards claimed her life. No punishment to the killers can make up for the pain we are going through now," she said.