In another tragic incident similar to the Budaun case, a 45-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped before being killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Baharaich district.

The body was found hanging from a guava tree at an orchard outside her village in Ranipur area on Wednesday morning, according to police sources here. 

The police suspect the involvement of the local liquor mafia in the incident. The victim, who had opposed the sale of country-made liquor in her village, had recently received threats from the liquor mafia, sources said. 

Sources also said that the victim, who was suffering from a stomach ailment, used to visit a hospital in the state capital for check-up and treatment. On Tuesday, she had left for Lucknow, but decided to return midway on being informed that her daughter-in-law was unwell.

The woman called her son and asked him to fetch her from a bus stop, a few kilometres away from her village. He, however, could not find her when he reached there. The woman’s cellphone was found to be switched off.

 Villagers, who found the body hanging from a tree in the morning, informed the police. The clothes were torn and the sari was found in a nearby field, giving rise to suspicion that the woman could have been raped.

The body has been sent for a post-mortem. A case has been registered and the investigation is on, police said. The incident comes days after the reported gang-rape and murder of two teenaged cousins in UP’s Budaun district.