50-yr-old woman gang-raped, killed in UP; 2 held, accused priest at large

A 50-year-old woman was gang-raped and brutally murdered allegedly by a priest and two others in Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Wednesday (January 6).
Police have filed an FIR against the three accused and arrested two of them on Tuesday while the priest is absconding.

According to reports, the woman was attacked while she had gone to a temple and was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sankalp Sharma said “the post-mortem report confirms rape, and there are injuries in her private parts and a fracture in the leg”.

Sharma said the family of the woman have accused the temple mahant and his aides of raping and murdering her.

According to an NDTV report, images taken from the home of the woman showed her body laid out on a cot. A yellow bed sheet that covers the lower part of her body is soaked with blood, while one of her legs appears to be broken.

“They brought her on their own in a vehicle. She was dead when they left her here. The priest and others dropped her at the door and left quickly,” local media quoted the woman’s son as saying on Monday.

Her son told local media that she had left home around 5pm and the men brought her lifeless body back by 11.30 pm.

On Monday a video of the absconding priest circulated on social media in which he claimed that the woman fell into the well near the temple and he and the other two men had rescued her.

“I brought two men to rescue her. We took her out of the well. She was alive. When we dropped her home, she was alive,” he said.

SSP Sharma added that the station house officer of Ughaiti police station has been suspended for laxity in the case.
“Based on this, a case was registered against the accused. Two of the accused persons were arrested on Tuesday night, while the mahant is still absconding,” he said.
Four teams have been formed to nab the priest, the SSP said.