BEAST: CHAPTER 3

                                  

NOTE: This story is based on the author’s fiction and doesn’t apply to any historical references, but is based on real-life incidents. It’s a sequel to my previous story, "Beast: Chapter 2."

Umesh Reddy confessed to all the wrongs he had done and gave all his confessions to the police. Rahul and the CID officers also got proper evidence for that. When they decided to give him the punishment, a twist awaited them.

Umesh Reddy gave another confession. In that confession, he said, "In Pallavi’s murder case, my friends are also involved, sir." I am not the only one who did this. "But five people are involved." He started telling me what really happened that day.

December 6, 1996

While walking on the road, Umesh Reddy saw a car parked there. Inside the car, his rich friends—that is, an engineer, a professor, a doctor—all of them and their friends—today there were six people in that car. When they saw him coming there, they forced him to get in the car.

At the same time, it started to get dark outside, and when they were going through the road, they saw a little girl walking with a basket in her hand. So they planned to kidnap the girl.

At that time, Umesh said, "Hey, I want to leave."

But that boy said: "No. You shouldn’t leave."

Now that boys stopped the car and got down from the car.  They grabbed the girl’s hands and feet to put her in the car.

Then the boys said, "You are the witness of this abduction." "So if you reveal this, we will kill you and your family."

Then Umesh jumped out of the car and ran away. That’s when he got hit in the eye. After that, he came back to the police training, and when his friends asked him about the injury, he said that he got hit on the table.

PRESENT

At present, Rahul and the CID team are confused about whether Umesh did this or if many people were involved. So, Rahul called the semen, which was found in Pallavi’s crime scene.

On the basis of what Umesh Reddy said and that letter, Rahul arrested those five people. The CID officers converted one of them into an approver. Then the boy started telling me what really happened that night.

December 6, 1996

The boys were going into the car when they saw a little girl walking opposite them with a basket in her hand. Then they stopped the car. Umesh and another went and took the girl to the car. When the girl struggled to escape, she kicked Umesh in the face. So he fell down from the car. So they left him there and went to another place with that girl.

They dragged her to the graveyard and started raping her. That boy was watching from a distance. Then they started talking about how the girl died. So they brought a sack and put her in it. Then they put it in the trunk of the car.

After that, they left that boy there and took away the girl’s body to dispose of it.

PRESENT

The boy, who was the approver, confessed it. Then Rahul and the CID officers decided to put them all in belly jail. since it’s a very secure prison. To move them there, on 18th July, 1997, they were taking Umesh in a van.  That time he was wounded in his leg and had a bandage.

It was a big deal for him to take a single step. Someone needs to hold him and make him walk. So the van that was taking him went to the door of Bellary Jail. While I was doing all the formalities to take him there, he told me that he wanted to use the bathroom urgently.

Since all who went with Umesh are trainee officers, and since he had a bandage on his leg, an old policeman went with him. He stepped into the dark to go to the bathroom. With those bandaged legs, he escaped and ran away.

One year later

February 28, 1998

A little boy played cricket outside for a long time and then returned home. But the door to the house is closed. So he knocks on the door, calling his mother. But the door has not opened. Only his mother was in the house, and her name is Jayasree. His father died a year ago. So he has been knocking on the door for a long time.

At one point, the door was opened. Then an unknown person from inside, who had a bag on his shoulder, was standing in front of the door. That man also looked at this little boy. That is none other than Umesh Reddy. So this little boy crossed Umesh Reddy's yard and entered the house.

By calling his mother, he went and saw her in the bedroom. That little boy’s mother was covered in blood in the bedroom, with all the clothes lying on top of her. When that boy was looking at his mother, Umesh came and stood behind that boy and said that god came inside his mother.

So he will go and fetch a doctor. He said that and left from there. It’s been a long time. So the boy came out of the bedroom and looked. But Umesh was not there. So, this boy climbed the gate outside and started playing.

Then the ladies from the neighbouring house asked, "Where is your mother since morning?"

For that, the little boy said: "God came to my mother" and said that "she was inside the house."

So the ladies went inside to see what this boy said, ran out screaming, and called the police immediately. Rahul and his team came, but when they got there, Jayasree was dead.

Exactly two days after her murder, a phone call came to Rahul’s police station from the same area.

In that, a person said: "Sir. A pregnant woman was attacked, sir. We have caught him. So come and take him."

The pregnant woman’s name is Nithya. On March 2, 1998, around noon, when she was alone at home, someone knocked on her door. When she opened the door, he asked her for an address. When she said, "She doesn’t know the address," and tried to lock the door, he pushed the door open and came inside.

He tried to misbehave with that pregnant woman. During that struggle, Nithya took a cooker in her hand and hit him on the head. Then she ran out screaming. Immediately, the neighbours came and caught Umesh. The local police came and took him to the police station. Then they informed Rahul. Since then, a police officer at the station recognised him as Umesh Reddy.

In the Mica layout, it was to him; a similar phone call came to the police station. When he went there, he saw: "The caller—tied to a post." At that time, Umesh said, "My name is Ramesh." "I am from Andhra Pradesh."

After that, he ran away from the police. So Umesh Reddy got caught up with him again.

A FEW MONTHS LATER

November 17, 1998

After this, on May 10 and 18, 1998, he ran away from the police two more times. In the case where he escaped from the police and jail, when he was taken to court on November 17, 1998, he escaped from the court bathroom.

Umesh ran away from the police after he was caught. He was in jail till 2002 after getting caught again.

A FEW YEARS LATER

5th March 2002

Then on March 5, 2002, when he was taken from Bellary Jail to Bangalore, he escaped again. Think how much time Umesh Reddy has escaped. This has been talked about a lot in the media. So all the people kept Umesh Reddy’s face in their minds.

A FEW MONTHS LATER

MAY 17, 2002

Then, on May 17, 2002, a person, meanwhile, came to the police station. He straightly went to the Inspector.  He told: "Sir.  Umesh Reddy was in the barber shop opposite the station, and I asked him to come and arrest him immediately.

But the police, who were in desperation, said: "100 phone calls come like this everyday." He asked him, "Did you really see him?"

He said, "I saw him for sure, sir."

So when the police went there and saw, there was no Umesh Reddy in that barbershop. He escaped from there and went to the railway station, where the inspector arrested him. Then he informed Rahul of this immediately. Again, Umesh started to confess what he did before murdering Jayasree.

February 19, 1998

In between, on February 19, 1998, that is, 10 days before Jayasree’s murder, Umesh had done many cruel things. Umesh Reddy stopped two girls named Amrutha and Fatima. Making them naked, he tied their hands and feet. The girls were raped in their house.

He understood his victims very well and started choosing the right one. Because he attacks only from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. because the husband goes to work at that time. Only women will be alone at home. He used that time correctly.

PRESENT

The inspector was terribly shocked. He asked, "How could you attack so many women and escape from that house, da?"

For that, Umesh said, "Sir, At first, I will say that I am a cable operator or don’t know the address. Then I’ll go inside the house. Then I will make those girls naked. Then the mindset of those girls will be broken. because they can’t shout."

"Why can’t they shout?" "What the hell are you saying?" asked Rahul.

"If you think they can shout, this is what will happen, sir." A female constable said it emotionally. She added: "If they screamed like that, the person who came to save them will see us naked." "So this fear for their virtue will taunt them, sir."

"So, they will not escape and run outside." "Am I right?" asked Rahul, to which Umesh laughed with an evil look and said, "How can they leave without clothes on their bodies, sir?" They will lose their dignity if they go out. So they will not try to escape. "After I rape those women, I will take away all the jewellery." "Before the women (who were naked) put on all their dresses and come out to scream, I will escape at that time to go to some other location, sir."

"He needs to escape somehow." A few minutes are enough for him to escape. So Umesh Reddy used this to his advantage. He is a very intelligent and talented guy. He cried and lamented before many policemen that he was not Umesh Reddy. "No one can pretend to be him." Rahul, who interrogated him, spoke to the media and the public.

Similarly, the women who were victimised by him give complaints as he stole everything from the house and did not mention anywhere that they were raped by him. Even the police know that. But those women will tell you to just file a case of theft. because this is a dignity problem for women.

This started to turn in Umesh Reddy’s favour. The women who were attacked by him- Veena, Amrutha, Fatima, like this, the court has summoned them several times.  But none of them came to court. So this turned out in his favour, and Umesh Reddy was acquitted in those cases.

Noting this case, activist Sushma Swaraj, who spoke about women’s rights, said: "Yes. If women came to the court like that, where did he touch you? How did you feel when you were touched? Didn’t you say not to touch you? Didn’t you know when he touched your dress? What else has he done to you? Will the thread enter without the needle giving space? Similarly, if you didn’t cooperate with him, how could he do such a thing? In that place itself, they will kill them with these types of questions. Instead, they will forget all this and start living their own life."

All the cases filed against Umesh Reddy were not strong, but they came out in his favour. So, he was set free. Fed up, Rahul brought Geetha to court by convincing her.

Though she came to court and gave testimony, and even though she said that he was the one who attacked her, the court said to release Umesh from that case by saying, "The girl was saved before the rape happened, right?" "So he cannot be punished."

Like this, in the case of that little girl Pallavi, even though that A1 anklet was found in Umesh’s room, because of another statement obtained from him by Rahul in that case—since he said six others were involved in that statement—that case also got rejected just because of that.

Because a boy who turned approver and made a confession came to the court and said: "Everything he said was a lie," The police asked me to say that.

So in Pallavi’s case also, since there is no strong evidence, he also came out of that. Fed up and angry, Rahul started breaking glasses and photos in his house. After smoking cigarettes for a while, he bought some alcohol for his house.

He consumed a high quantity of alcohol that night. Thinking of that little girl, Pallavi, he wrote these lines in his diary.

"Where did your childhood days go,

Your importance was not known.

You disappeared at dusk and came back as a dead body at dawn.

"What happened that night?" "Break your silence and speak your words."

Finally, in Jayasree’s murder case, a small boy was there when the door was knocked, right? That little boy came and told the truth in court.

"Yes." I saw him at my house." This time, a lady judge who noticed all the cases about him gave him a death sentence. This really made Rahul and his CID team happier. They were in tears of joy.

Opposing this punishment, Umesh Reddy appealed to the Supreme Court. Hence, the death sentence was changed to a life sentence. This not only made Rahul and his CID team upset. but also the victims, who were raped by him.

THE CLUE

Like I already said in the previous chapter, they found semen at Pallavi’s crime scene. From that and her autopsy report, they could have done a DNA test and solved the case easily. But then we didn’t have that facility. In countries like America, they find the killer with many technologies. Indeed, I researched and read about a lot of such cases. But this is not the case here in India. Only now, little by little, are such technologies emerging. So think about it in 1996.

 

EPILOGUE

When I heard the lines written for Pallavi, I became emotional when this poem was read by Rahul. Till April 2023, Umesh Reddy was in jail only. When they asked for justice against abuse of women, some girls talked about the rights of women and the difficulties they were facing (since they were women), right? What is your opinion about that? Kindly comment it down, readers.