Journalism of Courage
A 25-year-old woman was allegedly beaten up, raped and strangulated to death in northeast Delhi by two persons, including a man with whom she had been in a relationship for 10 months, police said, adding that both accused have been arrested.
On Saturday morning, the unclothed body of a woman was found in the backyard of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, following which her body was sent for post-mortem. Police also found two names tattooed on her left arm — her own and one Ashish. “Police checked all missing complaints from nearby areas, but did not get any leads, after which they circulated her photo to informers,” a senior police officer said.
Police said a vital clue came on Sunday morning, after an informer identified the woman. “Police found where she had been staying and eventually discovered that she was dating an auto-rickshaw driver named Ashish,” an officer said.
DCP (northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur said, “We have arrested two persons, Ashish (24) and Mohammed Saif (19), both autorickshaw drivers, after registering an FIR under IPC sections 302 (rape) and 201 (destruction of evidence).”
Several raids were conducted and police detained Ashish. “Ashish disclosed to police that he met the woman around a year ago. Eventually, they entered into a relationship,” police said. Ashish claimed things became tense when she started pressuring him for marriage.
“On Friday, she threatened his family to approve of their relationship. He then, with his friend Saif, met her Saturday night, and tried to convince her to drop the idea. But when she wasn’t convinced, the duo physically assaulted her and Ashish allegedly raped her, after which they strangulated her to death and dumped her body in a garbage area,” an officer said.
Thakur said, “We have conducted the post-mortem but are yet to receive the autopsy report.”
