After days of inquiry, now it’s Eid wishes for Bilal family

Swathi and Bilal had been friends since college, where they studied together. He was part of her close group of friends and was seen standing by the family on the day she was brutally murdered. He stayed calm in the face of wild rumours and allegations naming him a suspect. He quietly supported the police in the investigation. 

“We will have a peaceful Eid now. Last week was tough on us as we were often summoned to the station during the course of the investigation. The police came home only couple of times and on other occasions, they’d ask us, including the female members of the family to come there,” says Afsar Basha, uncle of Bilal, speaking to DT Next from their home in Triplicane. “He (Bilal) is relaxed now. We are glad that we will be spared the media trial now.”

The rumours and mindless comments by some public figures were hard to handle. “There was this post that went viral with his picture saying he is the culprit-- a well- known public figure posted it, without verifying. When a celebrity posts something, people tend to think it’s true. Others freely commented about ‘love jihad’. How is this even fair? Bilal lost a friend and he was trying to cope with that,” he says.

There were also reports that Bilal and Swathi were planning to marry, but Bilal’s uncle says they were good friends. “They were part of a close group. They all went to her place for a birthday party. However, we have never met her,” he says. 

Now that Ramkumar has been arrested in the murder case, the family is relieved. “Thankfully, our neighbours were understanding. Apparently, plainclothes police asked our neighbours about Bilal saying that it’s for marriage proposal. It was only later they told us.” Bilal, a civil engineer, plans to move ahead in his career and hopes that as a society, we do better during such incidents.