Deaf and mute Dalit woman dies by suicide in Ghaziabad — days after gangrape

“When a police team gave chase, they opened fire. The team fired back in self-defence, and the accused were shot in the legs. They have been admitted to a hospital. We recovered an illegal pistol, an empty cartridge, and a stolen motorcycle from their possession,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rural Zone, Surendranath Tiwari.

He said the men have been identified as Rohit (31) and Vir Singh Bhola (53). “Further investigation is underway,” he said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Ghaziabad Additional Commissioner of Police, Alok Priyadarshi, said, prima facie, the woman died by suicide as she was deeply traumatised by the incident. Police said they could not record her statement, scheduled for Thursday, as she passed away.

At the woman’s home, The Indian Express found a team of police officers deployed 100 metres away. A group of men sat outside while her mother grieved her loss along with other women.

“Two men forced my daughter to sit on their bike, took her to a jungle and raped her… My child had problems speaking and hearing, but they did not spare her,” she alleged.

Recounting the events of Monday, the mother said, “I went to a neighbour’s house with my grandson. When I came back, my daughter was not home. She would do this often, but would come back on her own. But as time passed and she did not return, we started looking for her.”

As per her family members, the woman left home around 7 pm. Her father said, “Around 10.15 pm, I got a call from a stranger’s phone to come and take my daughter. I rushed to the spot.”

He said she remembered his number and gave it to the person who made the call.

“Her clothes were in disarray, and her face bore injuries. She told me that the men had raped her in a jungle after they took her on a bike,” the father alleged.

The mother claimed that the police did not register an FIR within 24 hours.

She said after they got the call that their daughter had been found, they got her home by 11 pm. By 11.30 pm, they took her to the police station to register the complaint.

Police registered the FIR under Section 64(2) (rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at 9.22 pm on Tuesday. “Her medical examination was conducted at the district hospital at 11 pm on Tuesday,” the mother said.

“More than 24 hours had passed. Police had asked my daughter not to bathe; she could not be in that situation and she took her life,” alleged the mother.

DCP Tiwari, however, said the FIR was registered as soon as the family lodged a complaint. “It takes some time for a complaint to be processed into an FIR. But if the family is making these allegations, we will look into it,” he said.

The DCP also said, “As the woman was Dalit, we will be adding sections relating to the SC/ST Act.”

Back at the woman’s home, her mother said she had been receiving treatment at a hospital in Delhi until a few months ago. “Her condition had improved, and she was on medication,” she added.

Her sister-in-law said the body was discovered at 6 am, in a room on the second floor that was rarely used. “Around 2.30 am, I woke up to make milk for my son and saw her going to the washroom. Later, I noticed that the lights in the second-floor room were switched on… Nobody sleeps in that room, but I thought my brother-in-law might be inside,” she said.

“Before my brother-in-law went to the gym in the morning, he opened the room and found her hanging,” she said.