Namrata Damor was found dead on railway tracks in 2012
For over three years, 60-year-old Mehtab Singh Damor had been running from pillar to post seeking justice for his 19-year-old daughter, who died under mysterious circumstances three years ago.
On Thursday, after the Supreme Court transferred the probe into Vyapam scam and mystery deaths linked to it to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Damor family said they could now hope for some sort of closure.
"I was getting frustrated but I had not lost hope in our judicial system. Now I hope the CBI unravels what led to the death of my daughter. Why was she murdered. We need answers and closure of this case," Mr Damor told NDTV at his home in Meghnagar in Jhabua district.
In January 2012, the body of Namrata, a second-year medical student, was found near a railway track near Ujjain.
The parents had alleged that their daughter had been murdered. But in December 2014, the Ujjain police closed the case, claiming it was suicide, contradicting the autopsy report that said Namrata died because of "violent asphyxia as a result of smothering" and that the findings suggested "homicidal" death.
Namrata's admission to medical college in Indore had also come under scanner, with the police indicating she could have been a beneficiary of the Vyapam scam.
Namrata's father had approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2013, asking for a CBI probe but his plea was rejected. But he kept raising the issue at various levels.
The case came under the radar as last week, Delhi-based journalist Akshay Singh suddenly collapsed while interviewing the family and died soon after.
A retired district panchayat employee, Mr Damor has three sons who have helped their father seek justice.
"We had no hope in the SIT inquiry. We knew the state government agencies were trying to cover up. Now I hope the investigators will be able to track down my sister's killers," said one of the brothers, Om Prakash Damor.