MANGALURU: A day after the CBI special court in Bengaluru acquitted the lone accused in the 2012 Sowjanya rape and murder case, the victim’s family has demanded that the case be reinvestigated in a bid to trace the real culprits behind the heinous crime.
Sowjanya, a second PU student of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College, Ujire, was found strangled and brutally raped with her hands tied with her shawl at a deserted place in Dharmasthala in 2012.
Speaking to The New Sunday Express, Kusumavathi, Sowjanya’s mother, said, “We are satisfied with the court verdict, with everyone now realising that the real culprit is not Santhosh Rao. The CBI special court’s verdict has proved it. We have been saying this for the last 11 years. He is not the rapist nor the murderer. The real culprits must be out there, wandering scotfree.
We have given four names of suspects, who ought to be questioned. A child will not die on its own. There must be a reinvestigation of the entire case. It is a victory for us in some way and we are satisfied with the CBI court verdict. But we want to know who my daughter’s real killers are. We will continue our fight until we get justice for the murder of my daughter.”
She further said they are being constantly tracked by some people in order to keep an eye on their activities. “On the day of our house warming ceremony in January this year, auto drivers refused to come to our house to drop our relatives from bus stands. They said they wouldn’t come to Sowjanya’s house. We experience such harassment on a daily basis, but we are not afraid of anyone,” Kusumavathi said.
Narrating what unfolded on the ill-fated day when Sowjanya went missing, Kusumavathi said, “When my daughter left home at 8.30 am on October 9, 2012, I could not even catch a glimpse of her as I was busy with household chores.
When she did not return home from her college, we searched for her till 2 am, but could not find her. As many as 2,000 people joined the search, which also included the place where her body was found a day later. The culprits tortured her before killing her. I did not see her body and I could not see her in that state with my own eyes. There is not a single day we do not remember her. How could they kill such a child so brutally? The evidence was destroyed by the investigators initially. The day when she was found dead, it was raining and her body and clothes should have been soaked in water, but there was no trace of it,” she says, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Sowjanya was a soft-spoken girl and she did not have any friends. “Our relationship was more like that of sisters than a mother-daughter,” she rued. Sowjanya’s uncle and brother of Kusumavathi said they have organised several programmes remembering Sowjanya be it her birthday or the day she was killed.
The new house warming ceremony was held in January this year and the house has been named after Sowjanya. “She is our God and we have raised a tree near her grave. On October 18, the day of her birthday, we held a Bhajan programme there. We demand the authorities to probe the suspects Uday Jain, Mallik Jain, Ashrith Jain and Nischal Jain. Justice is denied due to pressure from Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Dr Veerendra Heggade and we will fight against it so that no other woman goes through this,” he said.