(Image source from: Tragedy of Esther Anuhya case)
Esther Anuhya, 23-year-old techie hailing from Hyderabad and working in Mumbai, went missing on January 5, at around 5.30 am in the morning, after reaching Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai. Her father after trying to contact her for an entire day filed a missing person complaint with the Vijayawada railway police. The complaint was forwarded to the Kurla railway police and thereafter the alert was issued in police stations all over Mumbai.
Anuhya was an employee of Tata Consultancy Services in Mumbai's Goregaon, working there since September 2012. For Christmas, she had gone to her hometown in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. On her return to Mumbai on January 5 she disappeared from Kurla’s LTT.
On January 16, police discovered the highly decomposed body of the missing techie at a secluded spot in Bhandup, in the outskirts of Mumbai. Police had no clue as to what had happened to Anuhya. Even her body was found accidentally due to the strong stench emanating out of it.
Level of the body's decomposition was high, making it impossible to detect the manner in which she was murdered. The private parts of the body bore injury marks suggesting sexual assault. Besides, from the pelvis down Anuhya body was burnt. Also, the ground where the body was found was black ,indicating that she was burnt at the spot.
Sice the time of her disappearance, Mumbai Police explored all theories as to what could have happened to Esther Anuhya. Her call data records were scanned and police talked to her family, friends and colleagues, who ruled out any love angle to the brutal murder. The theory of a jilted lover was also explored but there were no conclusive evidence. Police even considered it to be a case of robbery and murder by a smooth-talking criminal. However, her friends and colleagues ruled out this theory suggesting that Anuhya was too smart for that.
The only feasible theory the police can explore seems that the victim took a taxi or an autorickshaw from Kurla's LTT station to her hostel in Andheri. On the way the driver took kidnapped her to Bhandup instead of Andheri, where the victim was robbed and killed, including the possibility of rape.
Esther Anuhya seems to be a victim of delayed police action. Had the mumbai police acted fast after her father filed a missing person's complaint, today the 23-year-old techie would have been alive.
According to reports in the Indian Express, Anuhya was kidnapped on the way to her hostel from LTT station. After that she was confined in a room for five days in Kamatipura, Mumbai’s notorious red light area. During those harrowing five days she was beaten up and raped repeatedly before her murder on January 9. Report also suggest that one of the suspects even made a call from one of the two mobiles belonging to Anuhya from Kamatipura. So, how is it that she could not be rescued?
Kamatipura is a locality in Mumbai where women all over the country are brought and trafficked. How is it that the police and the government have not acted on the crime taking place in Kamatipura? Is there a nexus between law enforcement authorities and the prostitution rings? Can the Mumbai Police or the Maharashtra government explain why there has been no action against trafficking of women in Kamatipura?
The nexus between crime gangs and law enforcement authorities is evident in the drugs and sex racket in Delhi's Khirki extension case, where Somnath Bharti had asked cops accompanying him to raid a building being used for the illegal crime. The police refused to conduct the raid and chief minister of the state himself had to sit on a dharna to demand action against the five police authorities for dereliction of duty. If the law minister of a state is not obeyed then imagine the fate of the common man.
The incidence of rape in India has almost doubled since 2001. According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, in 2001 the recorded cases of rape were 16,000, which increased to 25,000 cases in 2001.
For a country where women are worshipped as goddesses, it's ironic that they are seen as sex toys and at the receiving end of male brutality. Time and again we are proving to be a sex starved nation, where hapless women are the victims of this heinous crime.
In 2012, the Nirbhaya gang-rape of Delhi was an eye-opener for the people of this country. It seemed that there would be no more or fewer cases. But again in August 2013, there was another gang rape case, this time in Mumbai. Recently a 52-year-old Danish woman was gang-raped by in the heart of Delhi. So when will the country wake up? When will our police and government ensure that no such cases happen? Will the women in our country ever be safe?
Do the TCS employees not feel any social responsibility. Can they not spare a few minutes from their busy schedule and come out in protest in all cities of India against the inaction in the Anuhya murder case. There are thousands of TCS employees world wide. If all of them come out to protest against the inaction then the government may act faster next time another woman is in a similar situation. Don't sleep my friends. Wake up. Next time it could be your sister, wife or even your mother. Please speak up. Go out and protest the delay in action leading to Esther Anuhya's rape and murder. Its time to stand up and protest.
(Picture Source: fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net)
(AW: Pratima Tigga)
