Woman walks into a Madhya Pradesh police station – 18 months after 4 men were arrested for her ‘murder’

However, on March 11, 2025, the woman, who is from a tribal community, appeared at the local police station with her family, carrying identification documents, including Aadhaar and voter ID, to prove that she is alive. She said she had left home in August 2023 without informing anyone and had been held in confinement in Rajasthan’s Kota for over a year.

“I had left home without telling anyone and went to stay with a man in Bhapura, who said he loved me and wanted to marry me,” the woman said. “But two days later, he sold me to another man for Rs 5 lakh. That man took me to Kota and kept me confined. I was not allowed to contact my family. I tried to run away several times, but could not. One day, I finally got the chance and escaped.”

She said she did not know that she had been declared dead and that another person had been cremated by her family in the belief that it was her. “I found out only after I came back,” she said.

Following the revelations, the Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted bail in May to one of those arrested in the matter.

The accused had been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 376 (rape), and 397 (robbery) as well as sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The accused’s advocate, Himanshu Nagda, argued that the case was based on circumstantial evidence and asked that “if the prosecutrix is alive, then how is the offence under Section 302 IPC made out against the appellants?”

Jhabua Superintendent of Police Padam Vilochan Shukla told The Indian Express that the police are reopening the case and re-examining all evidence.

Additional SP Prem Lal Kurve said the initial investigation was based on what the family told them. “At that time, we recovered an unidentified body and broadcast visuals via WhatsApp. The family confirmed it was her. Based on that, we registered a case and proceeded. Now that she has returned, we are investigating the facts again,” he said.

Police have said a fresh round of forensic testing is underway to establish the identity of the body and determine whether any charges in the original case remain applicable.

“They said she had left with a man. Later, we were told she had been killed in a dispute inside a vehicle using a truck driver’s tool. An FIR was registered and a chargesheet filed. But the body’s DNA did not match with the family’s then. We are re-examining all forensic evidence,” Kurve said.