Amidst the continuing nationwide outrage and protests by doctors and general people in India over the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College hospital, news has emerged that a nurse was sexually assaulted and killed in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district.
The incident in Uttarakhand took place on July 30 when the nurse was returning home and came to light only two days ago when the police cracked the case by tracking the mobile phone that was stolen from the victim, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
The accused, Dharmendra of Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, was arrested in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, said Manjunath T C, Senior Superintendent of Police of Udham Singh Nagar district.
The 33-year-old nurse, who was working at a private hospital in Nainital, was living with her 11-year-old daughter in Udham Singh Nagar’s Bilaspur Colony. The police started the probe as a missing complaint when the sibling of the victim filed a complaint on July 31 claiming that her sister never came home on July 30, Tuesday.
“On July 30, we received a missing person report… When we searched for her, we got to know that she had reached her village (before being attacked) in Uttar Pradesh. On August 8, we were informed about the body of a woman having been recovered from bushes in that area. It was soon confirmed that it was the body of the missing woman,” Manjunath said.
The police could not make any breakthrough until her body was found in an empty plot in Uttar Pradesh’s Dibdiba more than a week later, media reports said. The autopsy report confirmed that she was sexually assaulted before being murdered.
“The accused is a [drug] addict and does not know the woman. On the day of the incident, he saw the woman going alone. As per our information, he stopped the woman, who fought back fiercely. She was, however, overpowered and … strangled her to death. He also sexually assaulted her. After the murder, he took the woman’s belongings and escaped,” Manjunath said.
Police claimed Dharmendra confessed during interrogation to having committed the crime. He followed and attacked the nurse on the way inside the Basundhara Apartment at Kashipur Road in Udham Singh Nagar. He wanted to rob the woman of her valuables and dragged her to the isolated plot when he raped and strangled her to death.
The accused fled Uttarakhand with the nurse’s jewellery, mobile phone and cash in her purse, the police said.
