Esther’s tragedy

January 4... That was the last time the family saw her. When Esther boarded the train to Mumbai...

She was a very, very quiet girl and I had never seen her throw a tantrum. For Esther, life was all about studies and getting home to family. Her father doted on her — he would drop her to college, pick her up from college and then would help her out, whenever he could. The last phone call he received from his daughter was from Sholapur and the panic started when we didn’t receive any further calls from her, and she wasn’t picking up her phone either.

The ordeal begins

The police in Mumbai asked us to check with the Vijayawada railway police first, but that was when we faced the first hurdle. The officials at Vijayawada were keen to put the ball back in Mumbai’s court and kept telling us that there was nothing they could do. Frustrated, we used a few family connections and through, IRCTC, tracked down Esther’s co-passengers — we did all that ourselves. After speaking with co-passengers, we were able to determine that 70 per cent of Esther’s journey was complete before her disappearance and that her case fell under the jurisdiction of Mumbai police. Two days later, the FIR — for a girl who had been missing  — was sent via post to Mumbai.

Mayhem in Mumbai

At the Mumbai railway station, it was almost like Esther had vanished into thin air. Not a single CCTV was placed correctly. When we asked why the cameras were failing to catch the faces of passengers who had just disembarked, railway police told us, “Ask the guys who installed it”. I was shocked because, this is a city that had faced a terrorist strike, and proper CCTV networks was a promise made to all of us.

Both disillusioned and determined, we decided to prod further. Around this time, our relatives and friends were pouring in from all over to help with the investigation.

One of our relatives arrived in Mumbai, took up an accommodation at a dormitory in the railway station and stayed there for three days — carrying out 24X7 surveillance  at the station. He never slept... and continued his search until platform authorities caught him and then asked him to leave.

Days after the FIR was transferred to the Mumbai police, the officials finally informed us that the case was being moved to the special crime branch.

“But from the start, the police was convinced that Esther had eloped. So, much of the investigation time was spent chasing that particular angle. Also, attempts to trace the phone too had started around that time, with one of her phones being traced to a Mumbai suburb called Bhandup. Despite the trace confirming that the phone was ringing in the area, the two police stations at Bhandup, were never informed that their locality was an area of interest in the case. Such was the level of failure. Most of the phone tracing too, was done by us. The crime branch official would go home at 8 pm sharp and then the investigation would get pushed to another day.

Discovery

“Nearly two weeks had passed and we found ourselves without a single clue. But encouraged by the phone trace, we decided to ask the cops for a search team. They agreed. Some time into the search, one of our relatives called out, pointing at some shrub. We found Esther there, by the side of a road — it was January 16.

The anger

For all those days, Mumbai cops did nothing. The city’s commissioner on Saturday told media that “there were no lapses” and that “vested interests” were making “allegations”. What is that man trying to say? Also, AAP men called from Delhi saying, they ‘wanted to protest’. But for what? Esther’s gone...We buried her in a coffin that was nailed shut. What remained of Esther’s body only made up two feet. She was actually at 5’3”.