Bengaluru: T Ramesh, the father of 17-year-old Gauthami who was shot dead by her hostel attendant on Tuesday night, still cannot believe his daughter is no more.
“If this is the fate that awaits a girl child, no parent should beget a daughter. This country doesn’t deserve daughters,” he said in a choked voice. The man, who runs a medical store, struggled talking about his beloved daughter. He said he was totally traumatised by the ghastly incident. “I still cannot come to terms with the fact that my daughter was shot dead,” he said, pain evident in his expression.
According to Ramesh, he had got a call from the college management around 11 pm on Tuesday that Gauthami had fallen from the hostel building. He was asked to come over immediately. He, along with his family members, then went to Narayana hospital near Kadugodi. Gauthami’s body was shown to them and the truth told. “It was a total shock,” he recalled. “We were numb with disbelief.”
The management claimed that the girl had been having an affair with Mahesh, the hostel attendant, for the past one year. Something went wrong between them and he killed her. But Ramesh refused to believe the story. “I stand by my daughter. She was never a girl who would get into such things. There is something missing in the entire story. It should be figured out,” he said.
He has many unanswered questions. How and from where did the suspect get the weapon? Where were the security guard and the hostel warden when the incident took place. “The police should answer these questions,” he demanded. Ramesh remembers his daughter as “well-behaved and academically brilliant”. “She was a topper in SSLC exams . You can verify this with her teachers at Hanuman Public School in Davangere. She would tell her mother Lakshmi that she wanted to study medicine and become an IAS officer,” he said.
Gauthami’s uncle Balaji, too, demanded a thorough investigation into the incident. “All we want to know is why did this man (Mahesh) shoot her dead? What is the real motive for the murder? We have faith in the police and are confident that justice will be done to us,” he said. This view was echoed by B R Srinath, the father of Shirisha, the 16-year-old girl who was also shot by Mahesh but escaped with injuries.
Courtesy: DH
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