‘Should have called police rather than her sister’, Telangana Home Minister on murdered vet
Hyderabad/New Delhi, Nov 29: A woman veterinarian whose charred body was found here was raped before being killed, police said, even as a Telangana Minister stoked a controversy asking why she had not called police immediately.
Meanwhile, state Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali stoked a controversy with his reported remarks that the victim should have called the police rather than her sister.
However, sources close to Ali, who visited the parents of the veterinarian, said he was only trying to say police intervention could have helped her.
He expressed anguish over the incident and asserted that the culprits would be handed out tough punishment.
"This girl is like my daughter. I feel sad over the incident...police are investigating," he said.
According to police, the victim had gone to the hospital and returned home on Wednesday evening. She again left around 5.50 PM to visit another clinic and parked her two-wheeler near Shamshabad toll plaza and took a shared cab.
Her younger sister in her police complaint had said she got a call from her sibling at 9.22 PM on Wednesday, stating she was still at the plaza as someone told her that her scooter had a flat tyre and offered to help her, taking the two-wheeler.
She also informed her sister that she was scared as there was a lorry in the vicinity and some people who had offered her help were near the vehicle, the complainant said.
The complainant said she called her sister again at 9.44 PM, but the phone was switched off following which they approached the police.
The body was found near a culvert on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway, which is around 25 km from the toll plaza where she was last seen.
"Outraged and deeply anguished by the murder...I am confident that @TelanganaDGP & the police will catch the animals who committed this heinous crime & deliver justice at the earliest. Ill personally monitor the case too. Anyone in distress, please dial 100," Rama Rao said in a tweet.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi expressed sympathies with the victim's family.
"I'm shocked to hear about the brutal rape & murder of #DrPriyankaReddy in Hyderabad. How anyone could subject another human being to such terrible, unprovoked violence is beyond imagination. My thoughts & prayers are with the victim's family at this time of immense grief," he tweeted.
Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said he has been in regular touch with officials of the Telangana government so that those involved in the woman's murder were punished.
"The Ministry of Home Affairs will send an advisory to all states as a precautionary measure so that no such incident takes place in future," he told reporters outside Parliament in New Delhi.
"On behalf of the central government, I am talking to the state government officials. The Telangana DGP is also coming to Delhi today and he will meet me. Those who were involved in the crime should be socially boycotted and no lawyer should represent them," he added.
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Climate Change crisis: IMD to change parameters to declare heatwaves
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The IMD, along with its technical partners, will soon revise the criteria for declaring heatwave conditions in the country, as the present parameters do not suit India’s geographical conditions, according to official sources here.
Kerala, in particular, has faced difficulties in issuing heatwave warnings because of the limitations of the existing parameters.
Sources in the India Meteorological Department said the state experienced severe heat and humidity this summer and, for the first time, weather forecasts were made based on the anti-cyclone system that formed near the Karnataka–Maharashtra coast.
"We have never had an anti-cyclone system form closer to the South before, and this time we had to predict the weather based on it," a senior IMD official told PTI.
Anti-cyclonic systems are common over north-western parts of India, but this year one formed near the southern region, leading to unusually hot nights.
The anti-cyclone caused downward air movement, which pushed warm air towards the surface and prevented it from dispersing at night, the official added. As a result, Kerala recorded night temperatures 3 to 4 degrees Celsius above normal.
Because Kerala has experienced a steady temperature increase during the summer months for the last few years, changing the parameters for declaring heat waves would benefit the state, enabling the authorities to issue warnings more efficiently, the official added.
The IMD currently issues hot and humid weather warnings, although the situation warrants a heatwave warning, as the existing parameters do not allow the department to issue one.
At present, the IMD issues a heat wave warning in coastal areas when the maximum temperature reaches 37 degree Celsius or more with a temperature departure of 4.5 degree Celsius over the recorded maximum temperature.
For plains, the threshold is 40 degrees Celsius with a departure of 4.5 degrees Celsius or more from normal, while for hilly regions it is 30 degrees Celsius with a departure of 4.5 degrees Celsius or more.
Officials said the current heatwave declaration parameters also require these conditions to be recorded at two stations in the state to issue the warnings.
"In Kerala, we hardly get to record these conditions in two areas; moreover, we have severe heat stress that can easily cause a heat stroke. So we have decided to rework the heatwave declaration parameters and the changes will be implemented shortly. There will be a consultation with the Disaster Management Authority also before finalising the parameters," the official said.
Throughout Kerala, temperatures recorded this summer were three to four degrees Celsius higher than usual. The state also reported multiple cases of heatstroke despite regular warnings issued by the IMD and the state disaster management authority.
According to experts, Kerala has become a climate change hotspot, with a steady increase in atmospheric temperatures and erratic monsoons.
The IMD has also predicted a below-normal monsoon this year, as this is the first time two consecutive El Nino years are being witnessed.
