Hyderabad: One year on, Disha rape horror still haunts State

Hyderabad Disha rape Case: It was exactly this day a year ago a young veterinary doctor was brutally raped, killed and burnt by four barbaric youth on the outskirts of the teeming megalopolis, sending shivers down the spine of civil society in general and hapless womenfolk in particular.

Not just Hyderabad, but the whole country was shocked to hear the news and protests erupted across the nation demanding justice to the victim. All four accused were arrested within 48 hours of the gruesome incident by the alert police, but by that time, the incident marred the image of Hyderabad as a safe city for women. However, Hyderabad police, well aware of the intricacies of Indian criminal justice system, shot the four rapists dead in a predawn encounter at the very site where the young doctor was assaulted and killed, a week after the brutal crime.

In that star-crossed evening of November 27 last year, 26-year-old Priyanka Reddy was trapped by the four beasts when she went to consult a dermatologist at Gachibowli. The youth, all below 25, who saw the doctor parking her scooter near Tondupally Toll Plaza in Shamshabad on the Nehru Outer Ring Road (ORR) plotted to commit the offence once she returned. The predators waited for the prey, punctured the tyres of the parked scooter and schemed the felony. When the doctor came back by 9 pm, the youth managed to gain her confidence, offered to help her repair the scooter and in the process, committed the most heinous crime, even as the woman was trying to get some help from her family. She was raped even as she breathed her last after the offenders smothered her to silence her screams in the dark recesses close to Hyderabad-Bengaluru highway.

The incident left a deep scar on the social psyche, and remain a blot on Hyderabad city, otherwise known for safety of women. Though there were some hue and cries at certain quarters against the encounter killings of the rapists, the nation as a whole, welcomed the decision of the Hyderabad police to deliver instant justice to the victim by eliminating the rapist killers, sending a message loud and clear for anyone who intends to commit offence on women and girls.

But there are several unanswered questions and unresolved cases that the Hyderabad police are still struggling to crack, after reports came to light that they had five cold cases of charred bodies at hand, all women, found in 2018 who could not be identified.

After the sensational case, there have been several demands for extra judicial killings in similar cases across the country ever since and Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar, who had overseen the encounter, has been regarded as a hero by people across the country. The encounter case is still under investigation.