olice personnel inspect the site where an unclothed body of a 22-year-old Dalit woman, who was missing, was found on Saturday in a canal at a village, in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: Police on Monday claimed to have cracked the murder case of a dalit woman in Ayodhya, which had triggered widespread outrage and snowballed into a major issue ahead of the crucial by-poll in the Milkipur assembly seat in Faizabad (Ayodhya) district.
Police sources said that three persons, one of whom hailed from the same village where the victim lived, were arrested in connection with the murder. They were identified as Digvijay Singh, Hariram Kori and Vijay Sahu.
Ayodhya police chief Raj Karan Nair said that the accused persons had confessed to the crime. ‘’We will take remand of the accused persons and ensure swift punishment through trial in the fast track court,’’ he said.
The 22-year old victim had gone missing since January 30 and a missing person report was lodged with the police. The police, on Saturday, recovered the badly bruised body of the victim from the bushes near a canal in the district.
There were no clothes on the body of the victim and the body bore injury marks at many places. The family members apprehended that she might have been raped before being murdered.
Sources said that the murder of the dalit woman was an act of revenge. One of the accused persons, Digvijay Singh, had an altercation with the brother of the victim a few days back.
The threesome had perpetrated the crime in an inebriated state, sources said. Police said that rape could be confirmed only after the autopsy.
The murder had snowballed into a major issue with the opposition leaders cornering the state government and slamming it for failing to ensure safety of the women. It was also raised in the Parliament on Monday by the opposition MPs.