Vijayawada: “As a parent, who was a first-hand witness to her work ethic and academic intelligence, I always dreamt of one day seeing her pictures being published in newspapers as a topper in academics. Instead, today I am reduced ashen, aggrieved beyond consolation, to see her mug shot along with a news report of her gruesome rape and murder. I dreamt the whole city would speak about her, and today, I see her featured on flexis, banners and the social media demanding justice in her case,” said Parvathi Devi, in an emotionally choked voice, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she tried to speak her heart out while recollecting the happy memories of her daughter.
After being struck first by an inhuman crime of the heartless against their beloved 15-year-old daughter, even as they were trying to cope with an inconsolable tragedy, the ordeal began as parents who had to fight for justice against an insensitive administration, a bigger pain, and a continuing saga at that.
Police did initially arrest the two accused on charges of rape and murder. However, in due course of the investigation, the parents alleged, cops turned hostile, and instead began to misdirect the probe in order to prove the post-mortem report wrong and began attributing caste bias against the doctor who conducted the autopsy.
Not only did local police officials investigating the case botch up in an attempt to help the accused off the hook, the parents were subjected to intimidation and humiliation at the hands of police and politicians, the sobbing mother revealed.
Two-and-a-half years after their daughter was raped and murdered by two men — allegedly by Diwakar Reddy and Harsha Vardan Reddy — both sons of the school correspondent where the victim girl was studying in class X — some ray of hope has finally entered the darkened lives of the parents.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy gave an assurance to victim’s parents, who met him in Kurnool on Tuesday that he would hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Mr Reddy, who had earlier withdrawn his petition in the AP High Court seeking a CBI probe into the death of his uncle Vivekananda Reddy, saying he was confident about AP state police investigation after he came to power, apparently took a calculated risk by handing over this case to the CBI. An instantaneous response to a massive protest rally call given by Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan demanding justice for the parents in Kurnool on February 12 must have had an influence on the CM’s decision to handover the case to CBI.
Keeping in view the Jana Sena public meeting, Dr K Fakeerappa, district superintendent of police, hurriedly convened a press conference a day before the meeting and announced the readiness of the police to rope in CBI.
The mother said, “Two state ministers, Ms M Sucharita, home minister, and Anil Kumar Yadav, irrigation minister, had a chance to render justice on earlier occasions but did nothing”.
According to the victim’s mother, irrigation minister Mr Yadav sounded sympathetic in the first meeting but was impatient when she tried to meet him for a second time, and dismissed her saying the incident occurred during the TD regime.
“Anil anna, going by the same logic, you could have questioned your Jagan sir on the need for bringing Disha Act, as the incident occurred in the neighbouring state of Telangana,” she said.
She alleged that police pushed her so hard during the visit of the Home Minister that her leg joints got dislocated.
