The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which was probing the death of an engineering student from Raichur, has charged her ‘friend’ Sudarshan Yadav (25), the main accused in the case, with abetting her suicide, using criminal force to assault her and stalking her. However, it has ruled out rape and murder.
Yadav has been charged under Sections 306, 354 and 354D of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The investigating agency has submitted the chargesheet a fortnight ago. The punishment for abetment of suicide is imprisonment for a term which may extend up to 10 years along with fine. “The CID has ruled out murder and rape and has stated in the chargesheet that the girl ended her life by hanging,” official sources, on condition of anonymity, told The New Indian Express.
There were massive protests across Karnataka and other parts of the country after the incident came to light. The case had grabbed national headlines as a ‘Nirbhaya-2’ after the infamous Delhi gang rape and fatal assault case of a physiotherapy intern in December 2012. Given the sensitivity of the case, the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had handed over the investigation to the CID.
The 23-year-old girl had gone missing on April 13 from her college in Raichur. Her parents had approached the jurisdictional Sadar Bazaar Police Station to file a missing person’s complaint. Two days later, on April 15 the police found her decomposed and partly-eaten body hanging from a tree behind a temple on a property said to belong to the family of Yadav.
According to initial reports, the victim’s body was said to be half burnt, but the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) has ruled out any burn injuries, the sources said.
“The body was found to be hanging low from the tree and may have been eaten by dogs or some wild animals. It was highly decomposed because of high temperatures in the region,” the source said.
“The CID investigation has revealed that the victim took the extreme step after her alleged relationship with Yadav went sour. The two knew each other very well from their early college days and some differences had cropped up between the two on the issue of a long-term commitment.
Yadav used to reportedly stalk her frequently. He had allegedly stalked her a day before she ended her life. She may have been mentally wrecked by his overtures on one hand and lack of commitment on the other. The investigation thus far has come to a conclusion that Yadav abetted her suicide. The forensic examination of the suicide note found at the crime scene, in which the victim had stated that she was taking the extreme step because of poor academic performance, has established that it was written by her,” said an official source.
