“We believe a fresh post-mortem will be able to establish our charge,” said Minakshi Singh, general secretary of Unity in Christ, a forum of Protestant churches based in New Delhi.
Venus said her sister’s body was on the bed. “Bloodstains were found on her leg, and one of her shoes was filled up with blood. There were injury marks on her left eye and neck, and swelling in other parts of the body.”
“Her private parts were also not properly covered, indicating that she was raped and killed. Her right hand had some cotton as if someone kept it there to prove that she had committed suicide by injecting poison,” Venus said.
“If she had injected poison and killed herself, how could there be so much blood and injuries? Why should clothes be removed from her private parts,” she asked.
A three-member church fact-finding team met with family members of the deceased woman. Singh, a team member, told on Nov. 5 that they “have sufficient grounds to prove that she was raped and murdered.”
She said the preliminary autopsy report “has given enough indication that she had not committed suicide. But the police were not ready to acknowledge it,” Singh said.
The case is now being investigated by a three-member police special investiga-tion team (SIT) after complaints that police covered up the case.
Police inspector Praveen Kumar, part of the team, said they are waiting for the viscera report. “Until we get the viscera report, we cannot jump to conclusions,” he said. He refused to divulge any details of the probe, saying it would breach its confidentiality.