“She was our little adorable doll. Both of us loved her more than our son. We made sure all her wishes were fulfilled, be it new clothes, sandals or food of her choice. I never forgot to bring her a gift when I returned home after staying away for weeks for work,” said the dispirited father, remembering his 20-year-old daughter, who was abducted and gang-raped before being bludgeoned to death in Rohtak a week ago.
Good at studies
Sitting among mourners outside his 225 square feet one-room house, the father — a hawker — recalled how she was good at studies and wanted to be a teacher at a government school, but he did not have the resources to fund her education.
“Though my son failed to clear the matriculation examination, she passed the exam with flying colours. She had dreams but I didn’t have the resources. But she never complained and offered to take up a job at a nearby pharmaceutical company to help me financially. I too was under debt and agreed,” said the father.
Her mother, who hasn’t eaten anything since the news of her death broke, is inconsolable. Surrounded by women relatives and neighbours, she demanded instant justice for her daughter.
“They took just five minutes to kill her. I want them to be hanged and that too in front of my eyes. I cannot wait for weeks or months,” said the 43-year-old woman, held by other women around her.
“Daughters are always close to their mothers. She too was very close to her. She was her entire world,” said one of the women who had gathered at the spot.
The mother recalled how she had brought her daughter a chain just two days before the incident, not knowing that it would eventually help her identify her daughter’s body.
‘Worse than Nirbhaya’
“She saw a girl in the neighbourhood wearing a chain one evening and wanted a similar one. I bought her the chain the same day. It was this chain that helped us identify her body. Her face was crushed beyond recognition and the lower part of the body had been eaten by stray animals. The body was infested with maggots. We identified her with the help of black nail polish on her toes and the chain,” said the mother, adding that what the accused had done to her daughter was worse than what had happened to Nirbhaya in Delhi.
