Woman’s body found floating in canal, rape suspected

LUCKNOW: A young woman’s naked body was found floating in a sub-canal of Sharda canal near Sports College in Gudamba area here on Thursday morning. The limbs of the body were tied with a wooden block and multiple injury marks were found on the face and head, said police.

Inspector of Gudamba police station, Ram Surat Sonkar said initial probe suggested the woman was murdered and the body was disposed of in the canal later.

He said post-mortem examination would be recommended by a panel of doctors. He said the panel’s opinion over any possibility of sexual assault with the deceased and cause of death would be sought.

He said the body was found floating in the sub-canal passing

through Rajauri village near Sports College. He said a local farmer Deepak, who was irrigating his field in the morning, spotted it first at around 6.30am and alerted other villagers about it. He said the villagers later informed the police.

He said the woman’s age was between 20-22 years and she was not a local as nobody in the vicinity recognised her. The police also had no missing or kidnapping complaint of any woman of the same age group.

Sonkar said the water was released in the sub-canal from the main Sharada canal in adjoining district Barabanki only few days ago. He said it seems the body was dumped into the sub-canal or the canal somewhere in Barabanki and it reached here when the water was released.

He said the Barabanki police have been alerted and information has been sought about whether any complaint of missing or kidnapping of the woman of the same age group was reported there. He said efforts are also been made to ascertain the woman’s identity by posting the body’s photograph on social media.

The inspector said the body has been preserved in the freezer of the mortuary of King George’s Medical University and its postmortem examination would be conducted only after three days if the deceased’s identity is not ascertained till then.