A normal day for her meant attending school until 3 in the afternoon and an hour later go for two back-to-back tuition classes. These days the school is closed for winter vacations.

Usually, at eight in the evening, 15-year-old Sheetal’s (name changed) mother Swarna would get her from the tutor’s house in the village. “My two daughters were like sons to me,” she said. “She would often tell us, I will study and become a doctor. Then I will fix everything.” These dreams have now met a shattering end.

On January 9, Sheetal — a resident of Kurukshetra district’s Jhansa village — left home for her tuition classes but never came back.

When the family members started looking for her at friends’ houses and in the locality, she couldn’t be found. Later in the night, they registered a missing person’s complaint at the Jhansa police station. Next morning a first information report (FIR) was registered under Section 346 of the Indian Penal Code. Two days later, on the night of January 12, some 110 kilometres from Jhansa village, Sheetal’s mutilated body was found near Jind district’s Bhakra Canal. She was reportedly gangraped and murdered. This case is now being referred to as the “Jind rape-murder case” in the media.

Sheetal’s two-room house, less than a kilometre away from the village panchayat building, now, haunts her 39-year-old father Surendra Kumar and mother. Her younger sister, 11, is yet to be clearly told about the horrific incident. Despite limited financial resources Kumar has tried to ensure the best possible education for both his daughters. Both the girls attended a non-affiliated private school in the vicinity. Kumar is a tailor and earns Rs 25 for each pair of trousers that he stitches. “I normally manage to do 10-12 pants in a day,” he said.

Sheetal’s uncle, Somnath Kumar, said, “She used to top her class. Look at her handwriting and you’ll realise what a bright child she was.” With the board exams fast approaching, the victim, a student of class 10, had started taking the two tuition classes a few months back. Each class was two hours long.

Her parents wanted her to continue with her studies. Kumar’s was a landless family, originally from the nearby Sudhpur village. They had relocated to Jhansa almost three decades ago and slowly built the house. While the rooms serve as bedrooms, the kaccha verandah is where the family hosts their guests.

Sheetal’s room has a double bed, a TV set and photo frames of Ravidas Baba. “She would never watch TV or even bother to pick up the phone ringing near her,” Swarna said. “Her focus was only on studies and nothing else.” She picked up her black-colour school bag and took out her notebook. One of the last lessons was on discriminatory caste practices that were prevalent in society. Her homework was neatly done. There was something scribbled at the back of her notebook, probably a name which was later crossed out with a pen. It was probably, “Happy”.

The prime suspect in the case was 19-year-old Gulshan Kumar, until he, too, was found dead on Tuesday, January 16. Incidentally, he was fondly referred to as ‘Happy’. The police had claimed that Gulshan and Sheetal had been in constant touch with each other. Also being claimed is that even on the day they both went missing, they had spoken over the phone for hours.

Until Gulshan’s body was found at Bateda, near the Karnal-Kurukshetra border, nearly 25 kilometres away from the village, his family remained under Haryana police’s scanner. His father Jaswinder Kandara, younger brother and classmate Sagar Kandara, cousin Prince, uncle Nittu and friend Sagar Chinaliya were rounded up by the police. They allege that the police used “third-degree” torture for hours until Gulshan’s body was found.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Gulshan’s father said, “Agar dead body nahi mili hoti to humare puri family ko khatam kar dete (Had they not found his body, they [police] would have murdered my entire family).”

Sheetal and Gulshan studied at the same private school and also attended a common tuition class by the school owner, Naresh Khurana. Gulshan had failed in class 10 owing to his poor health.

“Pichle saal wo maut ke mooh se nikla tha, uske gurde mein shikayat thi (Last year, he was critical due to a kidney infection),” Gaurav, 20, Gulshan’s elder brother told Newslaundry. He took compartmental exams and joined class 12 with his younger brother Sagar. While Sagar would prefer staying home, Gulshan roamed around with his friends.

Gaurav and Sagar showed Gulshan’s English notebook and their family album to this correspondent. One of the assignments were on “Save Girl Child” poster. In his poor handwriting, the class 12 student had written: “Girl foeticide – a crime against humanity”. The poster appealed to join the campaign. However, unlike Sheetal, Gulshan wasn’t as interested in studies. Instead, he aspired to work in a foreign country one day.

“Wo dusre desh jana chahta tha, isliye usne apna passport bhi banwaya (He wanted to go to a foreign country. That is why he had his passport made),” said Gaurav, who studies at Ambala’s ITI. “What sort of job would a class 10 or class 12 boy get? Odd jobs!” he added.

Like the girl’s family, the Kandaras, too, belong to a Dalit community. Gulshan’s family also faced a scarcity of financial resources. While his father was a daily-wage painter, the brothers would take up odd jobs on off-days to manage their pocket expenses. “Gulshan used to work on Sundays and had bought a basic Samsung phone from his savings,” Gaurav said.

The Kandaras also live in a two-room house. While one room serves as the bedroom, the other is the family’s kitchen, also used as the store room. With Gaurav, Gulshan and their naani sleeping in the bedroom, Gulshan’s parents and younger brother Sagar slept in the verandah.

Sagar, Gulshan’s friend who also shares his name with Gulshan’s younger brother, said, “He would speak about his affair near the water tank. After the Gurgaon school case [Ryan International School-Pradyuman Thakur murder case] the school management had installed CCTV cameras. Hence, they didn’t meet in the school.” He added that Gulshan often went to Markanda area, the pool over the Bhakra Canal. “In fact, he would meet the girl there.”

On January 9, he had left his phone behind — at Prince’s house — as it was discharged. Sagar claimed that on the day of their disappearance, a class 10 student from the same school had spotted them near the pool. After that neither of the two could be traced until their dead bodies surfaced. In the CCTV footage accessed by Newslaundry, Gulshan could be seen taking a lift on a motorcycle with two other riders at 4:21 in the evening.

“Masterji (Naresh Khurana) called me on January 9 saying that my son had eloped with the girl and I must find him,” Jaswinder Kandara told this correspondent. “I reached the police station that very night. We looked for him. He too was missing. However, the police didn’t register our complaint saying that we were at fault.”

Radha Rani, Gulshan’s mother said, “Unki beti gayi, aur humara beta maar diya. Dono parivaron ko insaaf milna chahiye (They lost their daughter and our son was killed. Both  families should get justice).” While the families are struggling to cope with the horror of these twin murders and the brutal gangrape, the police is under fire. Chief Minister ML Khattar-led Haryana government is facing public outrage with several incidents of rape being reported over the last few days.

The Haryana Police, who have been accused of a shoddy investigation, is currently working on all “possible angles”. Sources in the police have stated that the “possibility of honour killing couldn’t be denied either.”

However, both families are rejecting the possibilities of honour killing. “The world would come to an end if a father commits such crime and kills his own daughter in such a manner,” Kumar said.

Read here: #JindRapeCase: The victim may have been alive after she went missing