2nd postmortem confirms rape,murder of Dalit girl

A postmortem conducted on Wednesday had ruled out rape and strangulation but the second postmortem on Thursday confirmed both.

Dr RK Saxena,who had conducted the first postmortem,has been suspended and an FIR has been ordered against him for concealing facts,said Special DG (Law & Order),Brij Lal. On basis of the fresh report,IPC Sections of rape and the SC/ST Act was added in the murder case lodged on Tuesday.

According to police,Arti (17),had gone to a sewing training centre in Chinhat on Tuesday afternoon. When she failed to return till late evening,her family launched a search and found her body in a field outside the village. She appeared to have been strangled with her scarf and shawl. Doctors at Gomti Nagar’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital declared her dead and a case of murder was registered that night. While sending the body for postmortem,the police had mentioned ligature marks on the neck and bruises on the back.

But the postmortem conducted by Saxena ignored the references and said the cause of death could not ascertained and the viscera was preserved for laboratory test. The report failed to mention the bruises on the body and said she was not raped.

Following contradictions,the body was exhumed and the second postmortem was conducted. The second report confirmed she was raped and strangled and mentioned there were eight bruises on the body.

In the FIR,girl’s father Ram Chandra had mentioned Arjun Yadav,Ashok Yadav and their aides as suspects. On Thursday,police arrested Arjun,Ashok,Santosh Pasi and Rajkumar — all from same locality.

The accused told police that they were frequent visitors to the deceased’s house. On Tuesday,Arjun and Rajkumar dragged Arti to a secluded field and raped her when she was returning from the sewing training centre. Santosh and Ashok also were there and they too,had raped the girl. Later,Rajkumar and Arjun strangulated her with her scarf and escaped.

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes,meanwhile, has sought a report .