Medical report confirms rape, police add charges

ON APRIL 23, BODIES OF A CATTLE TRADER, HIS WIFE, THEIR DAUGHTER, DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, GRANDDAUGHTER WERE FOUND IN THEIR HOUSE

HT Correspondent

PRAYAGRAJ: Weeks after five members of a family, including two women, were found murdered in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district, police have added charges of rape against the accused after the medical report confirmed the crime, senior officers said on Saturday.

After the arrest of seven people in connection with the case on May 4, the police found that they had also gang-raped the two women, said Prayagraj senior superintendent of police Ajay Kumar. “The accused, all members of an interstate gang of robbers, have also confessed to the crime.”

On Friday, the medical report of the two women also confirmed rape, he said. “After the report from the Forensic Science Lab, Phaphamau, on Friday confirmed gang rape, relevant sections under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to the crime have been added to the FIR (first information report),” the SSP added.

The accused have been booked under IPC sections 376D (gang rape), 396 (murder during dacoity), 120B (party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc), police said, adding that they were earlier booked under Section 302 (murder).

On April 23, blood-soaked bodies of a cattle trader, his wife, their daughter, daughter-in-law and one-year-old granddaughter were found in their house in the Tharwai development block of the district. They had been battered to death and their house was also set on fire, police said.

A four-year-old girl, who was present in the house at the time of the incident, was the only survivor.

The deceased cattle trader’s son, who was not at home at the time of the incident, had lodged an FIR at Tharwai police station on April 23 itself.