Dalit woman was brutalised, skull smashed: Autopsy

Chandigarh: More gory details of Nirbhaya-like gangrape-and-murder of a young dalit woman from Sonipat emerge on Sunday, while her family alleged that their plea to police for help prior to the killing went unheeded.

An autopsy of the victim showed the bones of the woman’s skull were shattered into pieces and “some sharp-edged objects may have been inserted in her private parts”.

“The findings suggest that it was a brutal rape and murder,” said Dr S.K. Dhatterwal, head of the department of forensic medicine at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak, who conducted the post-mortem examination.

Also, financial assistance of Rs 10.5 lakh was announced for the family of the victim.

As the 23-year old woman was a dalit, the state welfare department would provide `8.5 lakh to her family under provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“The remaining Rs 2 lakh will be given by the Red Cross,” Sonipat deputy commissioner K. Makrand Pandurang said.

Two persons, including the main accused Sumit, who is a dalit, have been arrested by the Haryana police which has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case.

The Police on Sunday also said that the family of the victim suspected the involvement of six more persons, out of whom five were related to the main accused.

Meanwhile, National Commission for Women member Rekha Sharma met the family of the victim and said she expects that the accused will get exemplary punishment like the killers of “Nirbhaya”.

The decomposed and mutilated body of the 23-year-old woman, who went missing from Sonipat on May 9 and was gangraped and brutally murdered, was found near the Industrial Model Township in Urban Estate, Rohtak, on May 11. Stray dogs had bitten off the face and lower portion of her body.

The sheer brutality of the crime is reminiscent of the “Nirbhaya” incident in Delhi, which triggered nation-wide outrage.