Dalit girl found raped, murdered in Aligarh

The semi-naked body of a 17-year-old Dalit girl in a village in Aligarh, with signs of sexual assault and her skin peeled away from being dragged through the fields, has been found.

The Aligarh police, which had formed five teams to crack the case, has detained 12 suspects for questioning on Tuesday.

The girl's body was found from a field in Aligarh's Akrabad area on Sunday night.

Aligarh's senior superintendent of police (SSP) Muniraj G told reporters, "The post-mortem report has revealed the cause of death to be strangulation and smothering. External injury marks were found on the victim's body. Her skin had peeled away. There were nail marks on her body. But a preliminary examination by a team of doctors who conducted the post-mortem did not find any internal injury. A forensic report will clear the picture."

The vaginal and rectal swabs of the girl have been sent for forensic examination and the report is awaited.

The police have registered an FIR under IPC sections 376 (rape), 302 (murder) and also under the POCSO Act against an unidentified person.

The girl, who was living with her grandmother, used to accompany the old woman to the fields, but on that fateful day, the girl had gone out alone.

According to the complaint, the girl left at around 11am to collect fodder for the goats at home.

"When she did not return after sunset, her family started looking for her. Later, a local spotted her body in a wheat field. Her clothes were scattered all around and it appeared that she had been sexually assaulted," the complaint said.

The incident is strongly reminiscent of the Hathras incident in which a Dalit girl was found unconscious in a field in September last year with serious internal injuries. She died a fortnight later in a Delhi hospital.