22-Yr-Old Who Accused MLA Of Rape Found Dead

A young woman, who had accused Samajwadi Party MLA Arun Verma of raping her along with some others in 2013, has been found dead near her house in Sultanpur, said police on Monday.

The 22-year-old had gone missing since Saturday and her body was discovered near a primary school in Jaisinghpur. An FIR has been filed in the case.

The father of the deceased has accused Verma for his daughter's death, following which he has been booked for murder. But Verma denied any connection with the woman's death, and asked for a CBI probe into the matter. He claimed that this could be a political conspiracy, especially because of the election season going on.

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The woman is found to have injury marks on her neck and police speculated that she had been strangled. The body has been sent for a post-mortem.

The woman had claimed that Verma, who is SP’s candidate from Sultanpur for the Feb 27 polls, had gangraped her along with some other youths in September 2013. The woman had named eight persons in the case. Later, she had retracted her claim and in 2014, Verma’s name was removed from it. Some local youths were chargesheeted.

The Allahabad High Court had sought an investigation into the crime and ordered compensation of Rs 7 lakh to be given to the victim in May 2016. The trial in the case is still continuing. The next hearing in the case was scheduled for February 21.

A home department official mentioned that the woman had requested for security and it was down-sized, which is a serious matter.

The police are in the midst of investigating the woman’s call record.

Picture credit- Jagran English