Rape-murder or suicide? Police grapple with dying declaration

The police in eastern Assam’s Bokakhat town arrested a man on the basis of a woman’s dying declaration that he had sexually assaulted her before setting her on fire.

But police said they have visual evidence of the woman having committed suicide and that the man could have been framed.

Minutes before the woman died at the Jorhat Medical College Hospital on Wednesday night, she accused one Tirtha Sarma of setting her on fire. She also said the man, a resident of Bokakhat, had sexually exploited her.

Jorhat is about 70 km east of Bokakhat, the administrative centre for Kaziranga National Park.

Her ordeal was reminiscent of a Kathua-like rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Nagaon district on March 23.

But the police on Thursday said that evidence pointed to the woman having committed suicide. “There is nothing in the CCTV footage to suggest the man set her on fire. But he has been arrested on the basis of her dying declaration. We are awaiting the autopsy report,” Manabendra Deb Roy, Golaghat district Superintendent of Police, said.

The woman, an Adivasi in her early 20s, had been a domestic help at the residence of Badan Sarma, the father of the accused, for three years. She was fired a year ago, police said.