Delhi Sultanpuri horror: ‘No injury suggestive of sexual assault’, says autopsy
A preliminary post-mortem on the body of the 20-year-old woman who died early Sunday in Delhi’s Sultanpuri after being dragged by a car for 12 km reveals ‘no injury suggestive of sexual assault’, special police commissioner SP Hooda said this afternoon.
The provisional cause of death is ‘shock and haemorrhage as a result of antemortem injury to head, spine, left femur (and) both lower limbs’.
The report also said ‘all injuries (were) produced by blunt force impact and (were) possible (from) vehicular accident and dragging’ but reserved the ‘final opinion’ after receipt of a chemical analysis and biological samples.
These, according to various media reports, will include shreds of the clothes she was wearing at the time – including jeans.
The post-mortem was conducted Monday by doctors from the city’s Maulana Azad Medical College and the report is to be submitted to the police later today.
The young woman was killed after her two-wheeler was hit by a car. Horrific CCTV footage shows the car – a grey Maruti Baleno speeding around the city for 12 hours with the woman’s body stuck underneath all the time.
There were five men in the car – all of whom confessed to being drunk and all of whom were sent to police custody for three days beginning Monday.
They have not yet been booked for murder; as of now they face charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and death due to negligence.
Police have recorded the statement of a woman with the victim before she died. She has been listed as an ‘eyewitness’ and special police commissioner Sagar Preet Hooda said she could help ensure ‘strictest punishment’ for the accused.
“She is cooperating with the police… in CCTV footage [the witness] was seen accompanying victim just before incident. She did not sustain any injury.”
A video appears to show the two women leaving a hotel in Sector 23 of Delhi’s Rohini early January 1 morning. Hotel employees said they checked in at 9 pm.
The grisly death has provoked outrage across the country, with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal calling for the death penalty for the five accused and the city’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party offering legal aid to the victim’s family.
The death has also triggered (an entirely predictable) blame-game with the AAP (which controls the Delhi government) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (which controls the Delhi Police) taking pot-shots at each other.