VIJAYAWADA: A decade has passed since his 23-year-old daughter, a bright young techie, was taken from him in the most brutal way imaginable. On Tuesday, that pain deepened as Supreme Court acquitted the man convicted of her rape and murder, erasing the justice the 70-year-old retired professor and his family in Andhra Pradesh's Machilipatnam had clung to, reports Srikanth Aluri. For a man who taught political science, he is no stranger to the complexities of law and justice. "After coming to know about his appeal in SC, we thought his sentence might be commuted to life," he said.
Yet this verdict has left him questioning everything. "We never in our wildest dreams imagined he would be acquitted. If he is innocent, then who is the culprit? Now, after 10 years, how will justice be served? These questions will haunt all my family members forever," he said.
"My entire family is in disbelief. All the fight we put up for justice the past 10 years has gone in vain. I am tired and do not have the kind of strength I used to have. This verdict is like a punishment for me. I do not want to comment on it. I leave it to god," the father said. The father recounted the trauma of losing his young daughter, who had just begun building her life. "She had never been to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (at Kurla in Mumbai) before that journey. She went there without knowing where she was landing... and left forever," he said. He recalled every agonising step of the fight for justice. How police initially seemed uninterested but later pieced together what had happened. For the family, the fight is over but there is no closure. Only an endless loop of pain and unanswered questions. "I cannot control my tears whenever I remember my daughter and the amount of suffering she underwent," the father said.