A 24-year-old woman was abducted by a huge mob who also attacked her father and vandalised her house near Hyderabad, her parents alleged. The incident occurred on Friday, December 9, in the Adibatla police station limits under Rachakonda Police Commissionerate. The family has accused a man named Naveen Reddy, who had allegedly been harassing the woman to marry her, of leading the mob and kidnapping her. Police are yet to find the whereabouts of the woman, a BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) graduate who had been working as a house surgeon.
“Around 50 to 100 people came in and broke the CCTV cameras and other objects in the house. They beat up my husband and held me and my daughter by the throat. They dragged my daughter out of her room by force. She pleaded with them not to touch her but they took her away in a car,” her mother said. According to her mother, Naveen had been harassing the woman to marry him for a while.
Rachakonda Additional Commissioner of Police Sudheer Babu told the media that police teams have been formed to investigate different aspects of the case. When asked how many members of the group were picked up, and if Naveen Reddy had any criminal background, he said that sharing such information could hamper the investigation. Based on the parents’ complaint, a case is being registered under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code, he said.
Speaking to TV9, her father Damodar Reddy said: “They had met while playing badminton, and were on friendly terms. He (Naveen) then proposed marriage through some mediators, but she rejected the proposal. We refused through the mediators. He had been complaining about it to others, questioning the rejection.”
He said that the family had also complained to the SHE teams division of the Telangana police over his harassment on the day of Ganesh idol immersion. “He then sent politically influential persons as mediators. We still refused. He held a grudge over this, and has kidnapped her now,” the father said. He said there were around 20 relatives in the house when the incident happened.
The woman’s mother said that they had complained to the police in the past over his alleged harassment and that the woman had refused to marry him. She said that they had been looking to get their daughter married. A neighbour said that the family had made arrangements to meet a prospective groom on Friday.
The woman’s relatives staged a protest on the Nagarjuna Sagar highway, resulting in a traffic jam. They also set fire to a tea shop that is reportedly part of a chain owned by Naveen Reddy. They raised slogans against Adibatla Inspector of Police Narender for his alleged negligence in the case.