Ribs, leg broken, lung punctured: Badaun gangrape, murder revives Nirbhaya horror

In a grim reminder of Delhi’s spine-chilling Nirbhaya rape case, a 50-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun was on Sunday night gangraped, brutalised, murdered and her body dumped outside her home. Police are still looking for the accused — a temple priest, his assistant and a driver.

“In the case of the death of a 50-year-old woman under suspicious circumstances, an accused has been arrested and a case registered against him under Sections 302 and 376D of the Indian Penal Code,” said SSP Badaun, according to ANI.

According to media reports, a post-mortem examination revealed that the woman had severe injuries in her private parts. Her ribs and a leg were broken and a lung punctured due to an attack with a heavy object. A rod had also been inserted into her private parts and she died of excessive bleeding and trauma.

“The post-mortem report confirms rape and there are injuries in her private parts and a fracture in the leg,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sankalp Sharma said. She suffered from a rib fracture too, he said, citing the autopsy report.

He said the station house officer (SHO) of Ughaiti police station has been suspended for “delay in informing higher authorities, laxity in taking action, dereliction of duty and failure in taking speedy action”.

“On Sunday, the 50-year-old woman, who had gone to a temple, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Family members of the woman have accused the temple mahant (priest) and his accomplices of raping and murdering her. Based on this, a case was registered against the accused. Two of the accused persons were arrested on Tuesday night, while the mahant is still absconding,” he said.

The woman had gone to the temple on Sunday evening and the police complaint says that the temple priest brought her body in his vehicle and threw it outside her house, reports livehindustan.com.

According to reports, the initial complaint by the victim’s relatives was not acted upon by the police. They did not even visit the crime spot, relatives alleged. It was only after an 18-hour wait that the body was sent for the post-mortem on Monday afternoon.

That’s when the full scale of the brutality was revealed. The police have formed four teams to track down the accused.