Kanjhawala murders: Cops to probe autopsy surgeon
A WOMAN HAD BEEN GANG RAPED AND KILLED ALONG WITH HER ALLEGED FRIEND IN KANJHAWALA IN FEBRUARY THIS YEAR
Investigations into the gang rape and murder of a woman and her alleged lover in Kanjhawala has shown that the police did not probe whether the victim had been sexually assaulted or not -- otherwise a usual practice followed in cases where bodies of women are found.
The Kanjhawala police had found the body of the woman on February 19 in Madanpur Dabas village. The body of her alleged friend was found a kilometre away the next day. The police glossed over the fact that the woman could have been sexually assaulted and instead, arrested her husband and allegedly made him confess to the murder. The then investigating officer was suspended and the SHO was removed for the lapse.
Investigators will talk to the doctor who conducted the autopsy on the woman’s body to know why no effort was made to find out if she had been sexually assaulted or not. The then investigating officer (IO) will also be questioned to know whether the doctor had been specifically asked to check sexual assault or not.
However, the investigators said all has not been lost since the vaginal swab of the woman, the only evidence which could nail the accused, was preserved by the doctor. The swab will be sent to the forensic lab for examination and it will help investigators establish the accused had gang raped the woman before killing her and her friend and throwing the bodies at different places.
The twin murder case took an interesting turn on Friday, more than two months after the bodies were found, when crime branch officials arrested three men, out of which two claimed that they had gang raped a woman in front of her partner and then strangled the two to cover up the crime.
Further interrogation revealed that it was the same woman whose body was found in Madanpur Dabas. Of the four accused, Jasbir Dabas and Devender alias Babloo have been arrested even as the other two, Mohit and Vikas are untraceable.
The Kanjhawala police had arrested the woman’s husband and his relative on ‘mere suspicion’, even as the weapon of offence, the dead man’s leather belt, and the woman’s mobile phone remained missing.
“Once all accused would be arrested, their blood samples will be examined. That, along with the forensic test of the woman’s vaginal swab will help us prepare a foolproof case,” said the officer.
The leather belt that was used to strangle the woman’s alleged lover was recovered from the field where she was gangraped and murdered only on Friday and at the instance of Jasbir and Devender. Their interrogation also helped the police recover the woman’s mobile from the drain from where her body was pulled out by the Kanjhawala police on February.
Crime branch officials are now trying to find out why the local police did not scan the drain properly to recover the mobile, despite knowing that the phone was missing and it was a crucial evidence in the case. The man’s autopsy report said that he was strangled probably using an electric wire. Officials will also try to find out why no effort was made by the then investigating officer to recover the weapon of offence.