On September 25, an 18-year-old Muslim maid was found dead under suspicious circumstances at the residence of Madhu Yadav a TRS leader at Moinabad, Hyderabad.
While the police said that the teen died by suicide, it is alleged that the accused Yadav, had raped her and later killed her. Then, he hanged the body to make it look like a suicide.
But a fact-finding team, visited Himayathnagar village in Moinabad has ruled out suicide of Hayath Begum (name changed) comprising 4 social activists from Hyderabad who visited the family have concluded that Hayath had not committed suicide but was ratger repeatedly raped.
It also concluded that the 18-year-old girl was repeatedly raped by the man, a history-sheeter.
The team from Hyderabad also found that Yadav, used to get drunk, verbally abuse her and her younger sister Afreen, and almost every night took Hayath to one of the spare bedrooms on the upper floor, and had threatened the victim’s younger sister Afreen that he would kill her family if she revealed anything to anyone.
As per the reports Afreen told the team: “On 24th September night, Hayath was crying but did not tell me the reason. After supper, when they went to bed, Yadav came and started abusing us. And then, he asked Hayath to come upstairs. I also went along with her sister to the room upstairs but Yadav sent her away saying ‘I have work with your sister; you go down and sleep’”. The next morning, she found her sister hanging from the ceiling fan.
‘The incident of the mysterious death was not reported to the Sarpanch or other people till the police took away the dead body’, according to the team. Nonetheless the police did not do a panchnama (a record of witness testimony) and have termed the death as suicide.
The team does not believe it to be a suicide case. According to the team findings it showed that the feet of the girl were touching the bed on which she had climbed to hang herself, which usually are in mid-air in cases of death by hanging. Also, the bucket which she supposedly used to climb to reach the fan was standing intact and had not rolled off as happens in cases of hanging. Again, Hayath’s right hand was swollen and her left hand was closed in a fist, indicating that she was hurt on the hand.
Yadav have been arrested and booked under Section 354 and 306 of IPC (disrobing with the intention of outraging the modesty of a woman and abetment to suicide) in the FIR. They have also booked Yadav under Section 75 and 79 of Juvenile Justice Act for employing a minor.
The family has demanded for justice but only the forensic reports after the post mortem can confirm whether it was suicide or murder.