Uttarakhand Horror: Nurse sexually assaulted, murdered on way home from Hospital

Dehradun: After the brutal rape and murder incident at RG Kar Medical College Hospital, Kolkata which led to a massive outrage and nationwide protest by the doctors, another shocking incident has come to light where a nurse of a private hospital was allegedly sexually assaulted and killed with her face crushed with a stone by the accused who dumped her body in a vacant plot in a Uttar Pradesh village near the Uttarakhand border.  

As per the PTI report, the nurse went missing while returning home from work on July 30 following which her sister filed a missing complaint. However, her body was recovered on August 8 from Dibdiba village with her face mutilated beyond recognition, said Superintendent of Police of Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar Manjunath TC.

According to the police, the accused was drunk when he saw the victim and decided to follow her. After that, he attacked her while she was about to enter her apartment building. He grabbed her and dragged her to the nearby bushes following which he then raped and strangled her using her scarf.

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After committing the crime, he looted around Rs 3000 from her purse, her mobile phone and other valuables and fled from the scene. The spot from where the nurse's body was recovered is not far from her residence in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur district which is on the border of Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district.

Police began an investigation into the case after the victim's sister lodged a missing complaint on July 31, a day after the incident. SSP Manjunath said the victim was traced with the help of CCTV footage and by tracking the location of her mobile phone.

The accused who worked as a labourer in Uttarakhand's Gadarpur, was arrested from Rajasthan on August 13, the police officer said, adding the accused hails from Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that he followed the nurse while she was returning home from work with the intention to loot her as he was in need of money, SSP Manjunath said.

When she reached a deserted area, he forcibly took her to the bushes and throttled her with a scarf when she tried to raise an alarm. The accused then raped her and crushed her face with a stone, the police officer said. 

Speaking to The Indian Express, Udham Singh Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police Manjunath T C said, “On July 30, we received a missing person report… When we searched for her, we got to know that she had reached all the way to 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.”

“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,” he added. 

The incident comes amid widespread protest over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a state-run medical college and hospital in Kolkata. She was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty.

Medical Dialogues had reported that the half-naked body of the deceased was recovered from the seminar hall of the hospital. A preliminary autopsy report indicated sexual abuse before she was killed. As per the inquest report, there was bleeding from the doctor's eyes and mouth, injury on the face and nails, bleeding from her genitals, and several other injury marks on different parts of her body. 

A few days ago the Calcutta High Court transferred the case for further investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after there was no significant development in the police investigation of the rape and murder case of RG Kar PG Respiratory Medicine doctor.

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