Kanpur woman found dead in Bulandshahr days after filing rape report

Meerut: A 20-year-old woman who had accused a hospital operator in Unnao of rape, forced abortion and death threats was found murdered in Bulandshahr days after she gave a written complaint to police, officials said on Wednesday. Police said the woman went missing from Kanpur on May 21, two days after her complaint, and her decomposed body was later identified from photographs of her nose pin and marks under her chin.Bulandshahr SSP Dinesh Kumar Singh told TOI that the body of an unidentified woman was found in bushes in a secluded area under Jahangirabad police station limits on May 23. “A post-mortem of the body was performed and the cause of death could not be ascertained since the body had decomposed. The body was cremated within 72 hours after it was recovered under due procedure,” Singh said.On Wednesday, a team from Kanpur’s Barra police station reached Bulandshahr with the accused and met the SSP. “Police, along with the accused, spotted the location where the body was dumped. The two accused confessed to killing the woman and dumping the body here. The woman’s mother also identified the body,” Singh added.DIG Vipin Tada said: “The probe revealed that the woman was in a relationship with her employer Devkant Uttam, who is already married. She filed a complaint at Unnao police station on May 19, alleging that Uttam raped her, forced her to undergo abortion and threatened to kill her. Two days later, she went missing.”Unnao police confirmed that an FIR was registered on May 24, five days after the woman gave her complaint, under BNS sections 69, sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means, 89, causing miscarriage without woman’s consent, and 351(3), criminal intimidation.Barra police registered an FIR under BNS section 140, kidnapping or abduction, against Uttam and his ambulance driver Vivek Patel on May 25. “Her mother suspected that the duo had abducted and killed her daughter. An FIR was registered and teams were formed to nab the accused persons, who had gone at large,” Tada said.DCP, south Kanpur, Deependra Nath Chaudhary said that while police were conducting raids, Patel allegedly shot himself in the abdomen and tried to lodge a case against unidentified persons to mislead investigators, while Uttam surrendered before court. “Since Vivek was named in the FIR, police identified him, and after he received medical treatment, police arrested and interrogated him. During interrogation, the accused revealed that they called the woman to meet and abducted her in the car,” Chaudhary said.Chaudhary said the accused told police that Uttam planned to kill her because she was pressuring him to marry her. “They drove the SUV on Ganga Expressway from Kanpur and took an exit near Bulandshahr. They strangled her to death and fled after dumping the body at a secluded spot in the dark,” he said.The woman’s mother alleged that her daughter could have been saved had Unnao police acted immediately on the May 19 complaint. “My daughter suspected she would be murdered by Uttam and gave a written complaint to police on May 19, but police didn’t take any action. The FIR was registered on May 24, and by that time my daughter had been abducted and killed,” she said.TOI sought a clarification from Unnao police on the delay in registering the FIR and action against the accused, but received no response till the filing of this report.