POLICE HINT AT SUICIDE PACT; CAN’T BE: DOC

KURUKSHETRA: The doctor, who conducted autopsy on the 15-year-old girl whose mutilated body was found more than 100km away in Jind on January 12, said all scientific evidence suggested she was “brutally gang raped”.

The police, however, on Wednesday hinted at a possibility of a suicide pact between the girl and her schoolmate, who was until Tuesday the main suspect in the rape and murder of the girl. The 18-year-old youth’s body was found in a canal near Kirmach village of Kurukshetra district.

Abhishek Garg, superintendent of police (Kurukshetra), on Wednesday said the two deaths could also be suicides. “Both were youngsters... emotional,” he said, adding that it was established that the two teenagers were in touch. When pointed out that both the victims were found without any clothes below their waists, he said garments do come off when bodies remain in water for long. He said the final report on the possibility of a sexual assault or the cause of both their deaths was still awaited.

Dr SK Dhattarwal, head of forensic medicine at PGIMS, Rohtak, who oversaw the post-mortem examination of the girl, said that her death was anything but suicide. “In my career, I have conducted or overseen 35,000 post-mortem examinations and have given expert opinion in 3,000 cases. The girl had 19 injuries and they could not be caused by suicide,” he said.

“The girl’s vagina and anus were badly torn. The hair from her scalp was cut off. One person could not have done it,” he said. Dhattarwal, who is also the medico-legal advisor to the Haryana government, said, “I believe she was forcibly drowned after being sexually assaulted.”