26-year-old vet found raped and burned to death after scooter broke down and stranger offered to help her
A woman was raped and then burned alive by her attackers after her vehicle broke down when she was returning home from a visit to a skin clinic.
The horrifying incident unfolded in the eastern Indian city of Hyderabad after the 26-year-old victim, a veterinarian living in Shamshabad, left her home at around 5 pm on November 27, to visit a skin clinic in Gachibowli, about 16 miles away, according to India Today.
She was supposed to return home the same evening, but alarm bells rang when she called her sister at around 9.30 pm and said she was concerned for her safety because her scooter had a flat tire near a toll plaza and a stranger had insisted on helping her.
She said she told the stranger she wanted to take the vehicle to a repair shop but was stopped from leaving. In a recording of the call, she tells her sister, "Please keep talking until my scooter comes back. They [the strangers] are all waiting outside. You please keep talking to me, I am scared."
The victim eventually hung up and promised to call back. However, when the sister called her at 9.44 pm, there was no response. Another call at 10.30 also went unanswered, which was when the sister decided to drive herself down to the toll plaza to check on the 26-year-old.
However, there was no one at the scene when she reached, at which point she and the family approached the police and filed a complaint. At 7 am the next morning, the police delivered the devastating news to the family: she had been found dead.
Authorities were informed of a charred body found at an underpass near the Chadanpalli village in Rangareddy district, which was later confirmed as belonging to the victim with the help of the clothes she had been wearing.
Evidence gathered at the crime scene seemed to suggest she had been raped before she was killed, though there has not been official confirmation on the same yet.
The Times of India reported that the police arrested four suspects, including a truck driver and a cleaner, on November 29 in connection with the gruesome murder and rape. A total of 10 teams have been mobilized to investigate the case further.