The family of the woman whose mutilated and decomposed body was found in Sonipat, Haryana, on May 11 has alleged that the police did not attend to their plea for help much before the 23-year-old was gangraped and killed in Rohtak, PTI reported on Monday. They claimed they had approached the Sonipat Police about a month ago to complain against the main accused for harassing the woman, but that the officers had not taken any action.
Sonipat Superintendent of Police Ashwin Shenvi, however, refuted the allegations. “There was a verbal complaint given some time back by the woman to the Sonipat Police saying that the main accused was asking her to marry him,” the officer told PTI. “However, later the complainant and her mother again came to the police station and said they had struck a compromise, and there was no need for police action.”
Meanwhile, investigators said the woman’s family had named six more suspects related to Sumit Kumar, the main accused in the gangrape case, on Sunday evening. So far, Kumar and another person have been arrested, and a local court sent them to two days’ police custody. “A supplementary statement of the family has been recorded to find out whether those named are actually involved,” Rohtak Range Inspector General of Police Navdeep Virk told PTI.
More details of the incident have emerged as the investigation progresses. Sonipat Police Sub-Inspector Ajay Malik said the woman was first raped and then the accused hit her with a brick to smash her face to prevent identification. The rapists are also believed to have run over her with their car before dumping her body in an open field, according to NDTV. Stray dogs had also bitten off her face and the lower portion of her body.
Spokesperson for the Sonipat Police Jagjeet Singh told NDTV that the autopsy report also showed that the woman was drugged or sedated during the assault.
Earlier, the forensic team that had examined the woman’s body said sharp weapons had been used to injure and disfigure her, and that the rapists had tried to run their car over her face to prevent identification. “The findings suggest that it was a brutal rape and murder,” Dr SK Dhatterwal, head of the department of forensic medicine at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, had said. PGIMS had conducted the post-mortem examination.
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