The brutal murder of a beautician, Anita Choudhary, in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur was the buzzing talk of the town during the beginning of November, because the pieces of the victim’s dead body were recovered on October 30. But because public memory in our country has always been short-term, everyone has moved on with their lives. But it is noteworthy that even after 17 whole days following the pieces of Choudhary’s body were found, the last rites are still to be performed.
In the last 17 days, even though the prime accused of the case, Gulamuddin, and his wife have been arrested by the police, nothing concrete has come out of this probe. This is because the prime accused keeps changing his statements, and the role of another accused, Tayab Ansari, is still not clear.
In the meantime, the last rites of Anita’s body are yet to be performed, and while the police want ‘better co-ordination’ of Anita’s family members, the victim’s son has said, ‘We had given the police our permission to carry out the post-mortem on October 31 itself. But if they perform the funeral of the body, I will commit suicide right outside the police commissioner’s office.’
Anita’s family have also demanded a thorough investigation into the role of accused Tayab Ansari, his arrest, and a CBI inquiry. Anita’s community members have also demanded monetary compensation and a government job.
While Anita’s dead body is still lying in the post-mortem house, the police continue to say, ‘Investigation in the matter is going on.’
In order to gauge the feelings of the public in Jodhpur regarding the sensational case, Sonakshi Datta of GoaChronicle asked a few people around the city about their opinions.
‘The case would easily be shoved under the carpet. A substantial amount of time has gone by, but nothing colossal has been said by the police, except that the investigation is going on. In such cases, the police are always hand in glove with the culprits’, said a concerned citizen of Jodhpur.
Another person stated, ‘Receiving justice in such cases is very difficult. The fault lies with the Hindu community as well, rather than all the groups coming together and protesting against the delay in justice, only the Jaat community is protesting against the crime and the police’s shoddy job. There is no unity among the Hindus.’
‘I am certain nothing concrete would come out of this investigation. The police are moving at a snail’s pace, and the case would soon die down. We, as citizens, have to be more careful with the kind of people we are dealing’, said another worried citizen.
It was on October 30 that Anita Choudhary’s body-pieces were found buried outside the prime accused, Gulamuddin’s house. The accused had allegedly first sedated the victim, and later, hammered her to death, only to cut her dead body into six pieces, and buried the pieces in pits outside his home.
The victim used to tie the sacred Rakhi thread in the accused’s wrist. While the police have stuck to their theory of the motive behind the crime being that of theft, the victim’s family and community members have denied the possibility of the same, and want the police to look into other angles of a plausible motive.
