The autopsy report of the 45-year-old woman, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Bahraich on Wednesday, has “not confirmed rape”. Meanwhile, five policemen have been suspended in connection with the case.
“Pathological reports to ascertain rape were found negative. Rape was not confirmed in the postmortem. The cause of death is ante-mortem hanging. The body of the victim did not have any injury marks,” IG law and order Amrendra Sengar said while giving detail of the investigation of the incident. About blood being found on the private parts of the body, the police said blood could come in any part of the body due to hanging. “It could not be said if it is a case of suicide or murder till the investigation is completed. The police are also probing mobile phone details of the victim’s son and his statement, which differ,” the DM, Bahraich said.
The DM further informed that victim’s husband Babulal, who is handicapped, had been given Rs 1 lakh as financial assistance from the Chief Minister’s relief fund. He said three of the five accused— Ramswarup, Onkar and Raju- had been arrested and a probe is on in the matter.
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Happy Guptan informed that five policemen- SHO (Ranipur)
Salahuddin Sheikh, Sub Inspector Janardan Rai, Head Constable Ram Dhwaj Singh and constables Khooblal and Nitin Dubey had been suspended for not informing higher authorities about the incident. It may be noted that the semi-nude body of the woman, belonging to a backward caste, was found hanging with a saree from a tree in Ranipur area. She had gone missing on the night of June 10. A resident of loniyanpur village in Ranipur, the woman was allegedly abducted from Bahraich, gangraped and later hanged, he had said. In a complaint to the police, the woman’s family has named five persons-Raju, Onkar, Ramswarup, Vinay and Naeem and an FIR was registered against them under Section IPC 302 (murder), Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and Section 376 (rape).