The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of West Bengal Police, probing the death of an 18-year-old woman in Krishnanagar town of Nadia district, has ruled out sexual assault or gang rape, saying the investigation so far has not found evidence of any foul play in the case.
Her parents have, however, been claiming that she was gang raped and her face was burnt with acid to hide her identity. Based on a complaint lodged by her parents, police have arrested an 18-year-old male friend of hers.
According to the SIT officials, the evidence gathered so far indicated that the 18-year-old died by suicide. The woman was found dead last Wednesday morning (October 16) on a roadside in an area that houses offices and residences of top district administration officials in Krishnanagar town.
Piecing together the evidence gathered from her cellphone data, call records, CCTV footage of the area and the post-mortem report, the SIT believes that the 18-year-old woman took the extreme step on the night of October 15 after she spoke with her male friend over the phone.
According to the investigators, the woman wanted to marry her male friend after Kali Puja. The two were reportedly in a relationship for the last four months. She also owed him Rs 40,000.
“However, the man was not ready to marry, and they had a heated argument over the phone hours before her death. We believe that she died between 11.10 pm and 11.45 pm… At 11.08 pm, she went offline. At 12.02 pm her male friend called her back but no one responded,” a police officer involved in the investigation.
According to police, the woman was last seen online around 11.08 pm on Tuesday. Her male friend spoke with her at 10.12 pm for the last time. “She updated her WhatsApp status at 10.24 pm. At 10:40 pm, she is seen in CCTV footage walking along towards the spot where she was found dead,” said Superintendent of Police (Krishnanagar) Amarnath K.
The post mortem had concluded that she had “ante-mortem” burn injuries on her face. Dr Soumyajyoti Banerjee, who conducted the post mortem at Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial (JNM) Hospital in Kalyani, had said that she got burn injuries while she was alive and they found no evidence of acid burns.
“While we have received the post-mortem report, there are still some unanswered questions. A forensic expert visited the crime scene Monday to gather more evidence,” a police officer said.
The investigations are awaiting the forensic reports to shed more light on the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death.