Saturday, December 16, 2017

The Case of the Disfigured Husband


On 28 November, A. L. Narayana, a senior police officer from Nagarkurnool, was the first person to speak to the petrified wife over the phone. Her name was Swathi Reddy. Her speech was incoherent. Four assailants unknown to the family had attacked her husband, thrown acid and petrol on his face, set fire to it and fled. Swathi was trying to get her husband to the hospital. Her neighbours had advised her to report the assault to the police.

“You don’t need to come to the police station. I’ll see you at the hospital.” Said Mr Narayana. A young woman whose husband was disfigured in an assault should be given all possible help, the police officer thought, getting into his jeep.

He met Swathi Reddy at Hyderabad’s well-known Apollo hospital. She stood shaken and crying next to her husband, Sudhakar Reddy. Mr Reddy lay on the hospital bed bare-chested, wearing just a pair of jeans. His ash-coloured face had patches that showed how unevenly the face had burnt. Burn marks were also visible on his neck, shoulders and chest. An oxygen mask was attached to his face. His eyes were shut. A bad job this, thought Narayana. God knows if the victim would ever recover his original face. 

Narayana started filling out the required details himself. He could do that much for the ill-fated woman. Swathi Reddy was 27. She was a trained nurse and worked in a clinic. Her husband was 32. He had a stone crushing business. They were married for seven years, and had two children.

‘Where were the children at the time of the attack?’ Narayana asked.
Fortunately, they were with their grandmother. Swathi had dropped them off at her mother’s house only the previous day.

The police officer wrote out descriptions of the four strangers who had poured acid and petrol over Mr Reddy’s face. Swathi was screaming at the top of her voice, so the culprits had run away. Another few minutes and they would have succeeded in killing Mr Reddy.

Nothing was stolen. Swathi Reddy could not say if her husband had any enemies. She certainly didn’t know. Her husband’s business was a small scale enterprise. They owned a car, but other than that it was a middle class family. It was unlikely the assault was related to Mr Reddy’s financial affairs.

Apollo hospital was expensive. Mr Reddy’s brother stood in the corner of the room. He had somehow managed to cough up Rs 350,000. Far more would be needed until Sudhakar could get his face repaired and go back home.

‘Will you please talk to the plastic surgeon?’ Swathi said to Narayana. ‘They should do a plastic surgery urgently. I can’t bear to see his face.’

Narayana didn’t understand why the police should speak to the surgeon. Surely, surgeons knew their business well. On the other hand, you had here a woman in shock. She worked as a nurse; she probably knew the way hospitals functioned.

‘I’d taken him to a private clinic before coming here. That clinic specialises in plastic surgery. They refused to admit my husband, saying this was a police case. So, we had to bring him here.’ said Swathi. ‘This hospital’s doctor said the burn injuries are not deep enough for plastic surgery. What does he mean? Look at my husband’s face. Anyone can tell he needs plastic surgery.’

Narayana made sympathetic noises. He took Mr Reddy’s brother out of the room, and asked him similar questions. He didn’t know anything. Sudhakar had not yet said a single word. Yes, his face had become unrecognisable.

‘It’s horrible.’ Said Mr Reddy’s brother. ‘It’s not only his face. Something terrible has happened to him. I couldn’t recognise him at all.’

*****
Mr Reddy’s brother called the police station the following day. This time, he s0unded as agitated as Mr Reddy’s wife had the previous day.
‘Is your brother all right?’ asked Mr Narayana.
‘No... I mean... I don’t know. My mother and I would like to see you urgently.’
In less than half an hour, the two had landed at the police station. Narayana offered them water.
‘Sir, this man... this man can’t be my brother.’ The visitor looked at his mother, who suddenly broke out crying.
‘Hang on; you said yesterday he was unrecognisable. And I’ve seen his face. It’s quite understandable...’
‘No, no. This man can’t be my brother. Both my mother and I thought it was very strange how an acid attack could change his height and overall appearance. When we tried to talk to him, he wrote. He refused to say a word.’
‘It’s possible he is not in a position to talk yet.’ Narayana offered.
‘The hospital offered him lunch. The plate contained a nice, hot mutton soup. Sudhakar, my brother, loves mutton soups. This man, whoever he is, told the nurse he is a vegetarian. He is not my brother, he is an imposter.’
‘But his wife... Mrs Reddy... what does she say to that?’
‘That’s what is strange.’ Mr Reddy’s mother spoke for the first time. ‘She says we’re all wrong. The assault has affected him badly. She maintains the man as her husband. We can tell you he’s not.’
‘Well,’ Narayana thought, ‘the wife says the disfigured man is her husband. The husband’s family says he is an imposter. Why should the wife lie?’

Narayana contacted Mr Jogu Chennaiah, the Additional Superintendent of Police. The case warranted someone senior.
*****
An  Aadhar card is a biometric identity document introduced by the Indian government. De facto it is mandatory, because it must now be linked with bank accounts and mobile SIM cards. When you apply for an Aadhar, you submit fingerprints which enter the world’s largest biometric database.

When the Nagarkurnool police visited the private room in the Apollo hospital, the man with the disfigured face was asleep. Mrs Swathi Reddy had gone to see her children. Narayana took the electronic device out of his pocket. He delicately pressed the fingers of the sleeping man on its screen.

Within an hour the police officer was standing next to a man in the government lab.
‘Good fingerprints.’ said the man. ‘They match exactly.’
‘What’s the name?’ asked Mr Narayana.
‘Rajesh Ajjakolu.’ said the lab assistant. ‘Here are his contact details.’

*****
Rajesh Ajjakolu worked as a physiotherapist. Two years ago, Mrs Swathi Reddy, a mother of two, consulted him about her backache. A young woman visiting a young male physiotherapist is a tricky situation. The two fell in love and started an affair. In India, with more than two billion prying eyes, it’s difficult to keep an affair secret for too long.

On 23 November, some of Sudhakar Reddy’s relatives saw his wife with a stranger in a car. They promptly informed Sudhakar. Sudhakar confronted Swathi and they had four unpleasant days full of quarrels, suspicion and fights. Swathi took the two children and left them at her mother’s house. She then spoke to Rajesh, her lover. They decided to get rid of Sudhakar. But after killing Sudhakar, Swathi and Rajesh wished to live a happy family life together. How to manage that?

*****
Three years ago, Swathi had seen the popular Telugu film Yevadu. She loved it. In Yevadu, a young man (Allu Arjun) suffers facial injuries when a mafia man tries to kill him. A lady plastic surgeon saves him by giving him the face of her deceased son (Ram Charan). One man dies and another starts living with his face, thanks to the great innovation called plastic surgery. Once Rajesh gets Sudhakar’s face, Swathi and Rajesh would move to Pune with her children and live happily ever after.

*****
Early morning on 27 November, Swathi gave her husband an anaesthetic injection. She was a professional nurse, after all. She and Rajesh then clobbered him to death with an iron rod. They took him to an isolated spot 150 km away from Nagarkurnool, and burned him after dousing his body in petrol.

On their return, Swathi poured acid and petrol on Rajesh’s face and lit a match. For love, it appears, men are willing to suffer much.  Swathi waited until Rajesh’s face was sufficiently burnt. She then began screaming; hoping that the neighbours would soon turn up to see the disfigured face of her husband.

*****
Sudhakar Reddy’s family spent Rs 500,000 on the treatment and on learning the truth, stopped. As a result, the hospital has refused to let Rajesh go until someone pays the balance hospital bill. The police have promised to take Rajesh to jail as soon as the hospital releases him.

Swathi Reddy is already in jail. That was the price she had to pay for failing to appreciate that a perfect plastic surgery can happen only in films.


Ravi 

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