30-YEAR-OLD RAPE VICTIM DIES IN ANDHRA

HYDERABAD: A 30-year-old woman died at a hospital at Ongole in Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam on Wednesday hours after she was found lying disrobed with her mouth stuffed with rice by a roadside, a police officer said on Thursday.

Deputy police superintendent KVVNV Prasad cited the preliminary probe in the case and said the woman had left her home on Tuesday night after her two daughters went to sleep. He added when she did not return until the next morning, her daughters and their grandmother started looking for her.

While they were looking for her, some residents found her lying in an unconscious state by the roadside. They rushed there and took the woman to the hospital, where she died hours later. “...going by the evidences found at the scene, we suspect that she was gang-graped,” he said.

The autopsy report confirmed rape and murder, the DSP later confirmed.

“She breathed her last in the afternoon [Wednesday] while undergoing treatment. We had filed a case under [Indian Penal Code] Section 307 [attempt to murder] and 376 [rape]. After her death, we replaced Section 307 with Section 302 [murder],” Prasad said.

The woman had separated from her husband seven years ago and was staying in Ongole town along with her two daughters. “We are investigating the matter. We have also been told she was suffering from asthma,” Prasad said. According to NCRB data (for 2017) released in October 2019, Andhra Pradesh topped in crimes against women among south Indian states with 17,909 cases.

On January 5, a 30-year old woman with Down’s Syndrome was gang-raped and murdered in Chavatapalem in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. The police arrested five men five days later.