New details have emerged in the remand report filed by police in the brutal gang-rape and murder of the 26-year-old veterinary doctor from Shamshabad in Hyderabad, explaining how the police managed to crack the case. One of the crucial witnessed who helped is a petrol bunk worker, from whom the accused tried to buy petrol in loose.
According to the remand report, once the news of the murder was telecast on media, the police got a call on the emergency helpline 100 from a man named Lingaram Praveen Goud, who works at a petrol bunk in the area. Praveen informed the police that two men on a red scooter had tried to buy petrol in plastic bottles the previous night, and he had refused to sell it to them because he was suspicious. Praveen told the police that he could identify the two men as well. This helped the police nab the four accused in the case and put together the sequence of events.
The remand report confirmed that on the night of the murder, Jollu Shiva, who is accused number two, had taken the 26-year-old veterinarian’s two-wheeler on the pretext of getting it repaired. Meanwhile the other accused forcibly took her into some bushes and raped her. Shiva returned with the bike and raped her as well. Because the victim was shouting, they forcibly gave her alcohol. They then killed her by smothering.
According to some newspaper reports, the accused raped the victim even after she died, however there is no mention of this in the remand report. “By the time Shiva returned to the spot after filling air in the tyre, she was already dead due to asphyxiation as they forcefully closed her mouth and nose. However, he went ahead and assaulted her body,” The Hindu quoted a senior officer as saying.
After committing the crime, the accused took the body in the lorry, wrapped it in a blanket, doused it with petrol and set it on fire in the underpass of Shadnagar Outer Ring Road.
Meanwhile, a magistrate from Shadnagar sent all four accused who committed the crime to judicial custody for 14 days on Saturday.
The Mandal Executive Magistrate passed the orders at Shadnagar police station as the accused could not be produced before the fast-track court at Mahabubnagar due to the non-availability of the judge and also because of the agitated crowd outside the police station. A large number of people had gathered outside Shadnagar police station where the accused were housed, demanding justice for the victim and raising slogans so that they be given the death penalty.
Editor's note: This story had initially aggregated a news report that said that the accused had raped the woman post her death. But TNM has procured a copy of the remand report, and it makes no such mention. We have edited the report to reflect the same.