The Recent Hyderabad Horror Makes Us Question Any Hope Of Safety For Women

A woman in Hyderabad was raped and then burned. This brutal rape and murder makes us question once again that when will women be safe.

A 26 year old veterinary doctor in Hyderabad was raped, murdered and burnt on Wednesday night while she was returning home from work. The woman was a resident of Shamshabad and on Wednesday was going to meet a dermatologist in Gachibowli. According to local news coverage on Wednesday, she left home on a bike around 5 pm. Then she parked her bike near the Shamshabad toll plaza and took a cab a to Gachibowli.

She returned to the toll plaza at around 9:20 pm and found that the back tyre of her bike was punctured. Concerning this, she called her sister who advised her to take a cab and come back home. Before she could do this she two men approached her to help her out by getting the tyre repaired.

The woman, who felt a little terrified, called her sister at 9:25 pm. Her sister told the police “My sister called me and said the two unknown persons had offered to help her but returned without getting the tyre repaired. She said nearby there were several persons along with their lorries. My sister said that she was feeling scared.”

After this, when the younger sister tried to call her at 9:44, her phone was switched off. Because of this the family approached Shamshabad police station and filed a missing complaint. However, around 6 am on Thursday morning a milk vendor found a body burning underneath an underpass of a flyover on NH-44 and reported it to the police. The doctor’s family recognised her body during police interrogation.

Recent updates by the police

According to recent updates by local police as covered by local news channels, the rape was planned in the morning. The offenders took out the air from the vehicle while it was parked and then told her it was punctured. The police have arrested 4 men under the charges of rape and murder.

This entire incident has again outraged people about the issue of women safety in our country. With #JusticeForPriyanka people are voicing their outrage on social media.

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

A woman was gangraped and burnt alive in Shamshabad, outskirts of Hyderabad just 30 Km away from the globally reputed Hitec City.

No point asking #JusticeForPriyankaReddy because a thousand nights have passed and Nirbhaya rapists are still alive. #Wakeup

— Monica (@TrulyMonica) November 29, 2019

I'm shocked to hear about the brutal rape & murder of #DrPriyankaReddy in Hyderabad. How anyone could subject another human being to such terrible, unprovoked violence is beyond imagination. My thoughts & prayers are with the victim's family at this time of immense grief.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 29, 2019

Is women safety that much of a difficult task?

Women in India since a very long time have been screaming to get safety against all kinds of sexual harassment. Still, the conditions are not improving. Every other day we hear about some or other crime happened against in various parts of the country. Every time we are assured that next time crimes against women will be prevented still nothing as such happens.

According to the recently released the annual Crime in India Report 2017 by NCRB, a total of 3,59,849 cases were reported against women in 2017. Out of which A total of 32,559 cases were of rapes. Also not surprisingly, the number of crimes against women in 2017 (around 3.6 lakh) is more than 2016 ( Around 3.4 Lakh). This suggests that the conditions of women safety have only deteriorated.

In this particular brutal case, there was no presence of any police authority at the toll plaza. A presence of some kind of security of police authority might have resulted in a different scenario.

Are we actually free?

https://twitter.com/priyamucharla/status/1200296228107370498

Constitutionally India is a free country but are we actually free? Where everytime the sun sets alarm clocks in the minds of women start ticking can we say that women are actually free? It’s even cruel to expect women to  live in a perpetual state of high alert and a fear gripped environment. Sadly this environment is the reality for majority of women in our country.

The 26 year old doctor wasn’t all that late – it was just 9.20 PM – still this tragedy happened to her. Only because some men with a warped mentality, who thought women only as means to satisfy their bodily pleasure and male ego.

In 2012, when the heinous Nirbhaya case happened the entire country went into outrage. New laws were made, protests were done but have things really changed? We can clearly say NO!

Nothing has changed –  the only things that change sadly, are just the names and faces of the victims.

Image source: pixabay

Comments