The main accused in the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl was arrested by police in Rajasthan’s Karauli, two days after her body was found in a well.
The incident has sparked a massive political uproar in the state, where elections are due later this year. The Opposition parties have targeted the Congress government in the state over the law and order situation.
Superintendent of Police, Karauli, Mamta Gupta said the main accused has been arrested and is being interrogated, adding that the woman’s family members are refusing to accept the body, as reported by PTI.
The victim, a resident of Mohanpura of the Todabhim area, was allegedly kidnapped, raped and attacked with acid before murder. Her body was found in a well in Karauli district on Thursday.
The deceased’s mother alleged that two or three men had kidnapped her and taken her inside a case. She had a bullet in the chest and acid was thrown on her face after being gang-raped, reported The Indian Express.
The victim was a BA student and her two sisters and brother are all minors. Their father has been working as a labourer in Dubai for the last six years.
The victim’s mother told IE that she called a relative from Jaipur, who reached on Wednesday morning.
The relative said that had searched for her for hours, and when they could not find her anywhere, they had approached the police.
“The policemen told us to wait till next morning, saying she will return home… They refused to lodge an FIR and threatened us. So we had no option but to return home,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the victim’s mother came to know that a body was spotted in a well, which was fished out at noon.
The local police on the assumption that the girl had died by drowning, had registered a case of unnatural death under CrPC section 174.
According to Pushpendra Gupta, Principal Medical Officer, a post-mortem was conducted at the Hindaun government hospital between 5 pm and 7 pm Thursday. Later, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Dr Kirodi Lal Meena reached the location and sat with the family on a dharna, demanding another post-mortem examination, which was conducted at 9 30 PM on Wednesday.
While the first post-mortem was conducted by four doctors from Hindaun government hospital, a different team was constituted for the second post-mortem on orders of the District Collector, and all three doctors came from the district headquarters in Karauli.
PMO Gupta, speaking of the first post-mortem said, “There was a firearm injury in the chest, face and hands were burnt, as if from acid, and the body was checked for rape. While firearm injury is confirmed – a bullet was retrieved from the body – the other two can be confirmed only after the preserved samples have been analysed.”
The second post-mortem was videographed on the family’s insistence.
An FIR was lodged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376D (gang-rape), 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid), 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman to compel her marriage or to cause her defilement) against unknown accused.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said that the Dalit woman’s death was “heart-wrenching” and that the circumstances of the case were suspicious.
“The administration should investigate the matter from every angle and strict action should be taken against the culprits,” she said on Twitter. “Continuous atrocities against sisters and daughters in the state cannot be tolerated,” he added.
Sachin Pilot also tweeted saying, “The brutal murder of a Dalit girl student in Hindaun area is heart-rending. The administration should investigate this very sensitive matter in depth and take the harshest action against the culprits and bring them to justice.”
Members of opposition parties had raised the matter in the Rajasthan Assembly on Friday and demanded a response from the government.