Finding the Chutke residence in Teachers' Colony of East Marredpally was not difficult. Almost everyone in the neighbourhood knew where the house was.
The Chutkes were like any other family living in the colony dotted with bungalows and independent houses. But then, on Wednesday night, 41-year-old Rajini Chutke, slit the throats of her two daughters, aged 8 and 3, using a broken bottle.
Initial police investigations say Rajini suspected that her husband, Vinay was sexually abusing her elder daughter. However, Rajini did not confess her fears to anyone even once. Neither did she confront her husband nor even register a police complaint. Instead, the mother chose to kill her two children.
After committing the murder, Rajini went to Hyderabad Tank bund and washed her hands and legs in the water. She told the police that she was cleansing the souls of her two daughters.
While the police are investigating the abuse angle, Rajini’s mental condition also remains a point of investigation.
When I knocked on the door of the Chutke residence, a distraught-looking Vinay, Rajini’s husband, opened the door. Initially reluctant to speak, he confessed that the marriage had been in troubled waters for a while.
He recalled that on Wednesday night his wife had asked for a new pair of earrings and he had bought her those. “She told me to send a picture of the earrings on Whatsapp and I did. She later told me to get milk and sweets for the children. When I reached back home, I could not find the girls. I thought they were playing hide and seek with me, and then I discovered the dead bodies of my girls,” he said.
Vinay categorically refuted his wife’s allegations and said that he had told the police that he thought his wife was suffering from depression.
On Wednesday night, one of Rajini’s neighbours got an SMS from her that read, “My husband was harassing my kids so I liberated them. I'm not a coward I'm a daring lady, Sorry Mom.”
“I thought she had accidentally sent the message to me. But many of us got it. We were very close. My two boys and her two kids were thick friends. I don’t know how to tell my son that the girl he used to call ‘Akka’ (elder sister) is no more. Maybe I will tell him that she left Hyderabad,” said the neighbour.
The twin murder has left the entire colony rattled and unsettled, as the realisation sinks in that behind happy facades lie stories of deeply troubled marriages. “She seemed happy. We used to sit and discuss about our kids. I have always wanted daughters, I would have adopted them, why did she kill them?” the neighbour asked, with tears in her eyes.
Another neighbor said she saw the father that night. “I heard something last night and I came out and saw the father drenched in blood calling out to people. Some say she had issues with her mother-in-law who used to live with them. But no matter what the issues were, I still can’t understand why she killed the children. That should never have been an option,” she said.