Hyderabad:Fact Finding report on the rape and suspected murder of a Muslim girl in Moinabad

A team of 4 persons from Hyderabad viz. Khalida Parveen, Nikhat Fatima and Aasiya Nusrat from Hyderabad Women’s Forum and Md Kaleem from Movement for peace and justice visited Moinabad Mandal, Ranga Reddy District. Moinabad mandal is around 30 kilometers from Hyderabad city of Telegana state

The purpose of this visit was to ascertain facts about the death of Hayat Begum ( name changed) , domestic help in the house of named Bathuku Madhusudhan @ Madhu Yadav, who into real estate and also affiliated with TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi).

The following are the findings of the team:

At the police station: 

The younger sister of Hayath Begum, Afreen Begum, her father Ibrahim Qureshi, brother Salman and aunt were also present at the PS.  After conversing in detail with Afreen Begum the following facts have come to light:

1. Afreen and her sister were working in Madhu Yadav’s house from the last 5 years as domestic helps 24×7 doing all sorts of work in the house except cooking.

2. Madhu Yadav’s family comprised his 2 sons, his wife and his old parents.

3. All the members in the family found fault with their work and often verbally abused the sisters.

4. Madhu Yadav used to get drunk and almost every night took the older girl ( Hayath Begum) to one of the spare bedroom upstairs.

5. On 24th night, Hayath Begum was crying but did not tellthe reason to AFreen. After supper when they went to bed, Madhu Yadav came and started abusing the girls. And then he asked Hayath to come upstairs.  Afreen also went along with her sister to the room upstairs whereupon Madhu Yadav sent her away saying, “ I have work with your sister, you go down and sleep”.

6. Afreen went back to sleep and got up at 4 am in the morning of 25th September to start the daily chores. This is the time the sisters started their day which ended at 10 pm in the night. Since she could not find her sister, she went to Madhu Yadav’s wife and both searched for Hayath Begum for sometime and then found her hanging by the ceiling with her chunni in the room upstairs where she had gone with Madhu Yadav.

7. Madhu Yadav called the police after his wife woke him up.

8. The police came and by 7 am with help from others standing there brought the body down and took it to the mortuary.

9. Afreen also stated that Madhu Yadav threatened to kill her family if she told anything to anyone. She was advised to tell that her sister was having severe abdominal pain and went to the wash room twice in the night and then the third time she went she did not wake her up but went upstairs and hung herself.

10. The incident of the death was not informed to the Sarpanch or other people till the police took away the dead body.

1. The local people especially were by and large angry at not just Madhu Yadav but also with Ibrahim Qureshi, the father, for sending the 2 girls for work in the house of a rowdy sheeter who has criminal cases against him.

2. They also informed the team that Salman, brother of Afreen Begum is also employed at a poultry farm from the last few years and does not stay at home.

3. Ibrahim Qureshi had re-married after the death of his first wife and sent away the 3 children from first wife to work. He took their earnings from their employers.

4. The police did not do a panchnama and termed the death as suicide.

5. There was a police enquiry for employing minors and Madhu Yadav was questioned about it. In order to escape the crime of employing children, Madhu Yadav made the corrections in the Aadhar cards of the girls.

6. The family said they don’t have Aadhar cards or any other age proof of the girls. The aadhar cards Madhu Yadav had have been submitted in the PS.

1. The team met the SI who was present at that time in the Moinabad PS. He told that the panchnama was done but was confidential. He also informed that government officials were present for the panchnama.

2. However the team found out that neither the Sarpanch nor any person from the village was involved in the Panchnama which is against the norms of conducting a panchnama

3. The police have charged Madhu Yadav 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

4. They have also booked Madhu Yadav under section 75 and 79 of Juvenile Justice Act for employing a minor

5. The body has been sent for postmortem to Osmania General Hospital. The lady doctor took samples for autopsy to determine rape

6. The police are awaiting the PM report

The family of the victim , Budvel, Rajendranagar

1. The father, Ibrahim Qureshi lives in a room constructed on an open plot along with his second wife and 3 children. His duty is to safeguard the plot by its owner

2. The family is unaware of the sexual and verbal abuse faced by the girls in the house of their employer as they never shared anything and came home only once in a year for festival.

3. Ibrahim qureshi wants justice for his daughter.

More findings:

After looking at the pictures of Hayath Begum hanging from the ceiling ( the photos were shared by people who were present at the time when the police came), the team has made the following observations:

1. The age of the girl appears to be 17 and not 20 and 22 as projected by the FIR and others

2. 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

3. 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

4. Her right hand was swollen and her left hand was closed in a fist, indicating that she was hurt on the hand

The team has come to the conclusion that 2 minor girls were employed 24×7 by Madhu Yadav and were underpaid. Further the older girl was repeatedly raped by the employer. On 24th night also she was raped. Her death by hanging cannot be suicide due to the findings mentioned above. Also why would she commit suicide when this sexual abuse had become a routine? Why did she go upstairs to the bedroom to commit suicide? Why did Madhu Yadav ask Afreen to lie about the suicide if had nothing to do with it?

Only the forensic reports after the post mortem can confirm whether it was suicide or murder.

(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad, Gujarat,India based website)