Aadhaar card helps police find ‘murdered’ woman in Maharashtra

KANPUR: Aadhaar card has helped police trace a woman, declared dead two-and-a-half years ago in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, from Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar. The police had booked her neighbour for ‘murdering’ her following a complaint lodged by her husband.
The woman, identified as Shraddha Awasthi, 28, had been missing for two-and-a-half years from her home in Sherpur Kalan village under Aseewan police station of Unnao.
According to police, the woman went missing on March 8, 2018. Subsequently, a missing complaint was lodged at Aseewan police station. About a month later, on April 2 body of an unidentified woman was found in Sherpur Kalan area of the district.
The woman’s husband, Yogendra Awasthi, then identified the body as that of his missing wife Shraddha, and registered a complaint with Aseewan police accusing a local, Pramod Kumar, of kidnapping and burning her to death. The police arrested Pramod after lodging a case under Section 302 of IPC and sent him to jail.
The police’s forensic team later procured DNA samples from the recovered body and Shraddha’s daughter Gauri, and sent the samples for forensic tests. The DNA samples, however, didn’t match following which police launched further investigation to trace the missing woman.
The case took an interesting turn when Shraddha, who had gone to Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar without telling anybody, used her Aadhaar card to apply for an ATM card at a private bank there.
“The breakthrough came after the bank dispatched her ATM card to her native address mentioned in the Aadhaar card. Subsequently, her husband informed the Aseewan police about the development. After procuring details from the bank, a special police team recovered her from Ahmednagar. She was brought to Unnao on Tuesday,” said SP Unnao Sureshrao A Kulkarni on Wednesday.
“The woman, Shraddha, will be produced before a court where her statement will be recorded,” the SP added.
He further informed TOI that the woman was found to be working there as a nurse in a private hospital. During preliminary questioning, Shraddha told the investigators that she had left her home owing to constant harassment by her husband.
The SP told TOI that murder charges against the accused will now be dropped. Further probe will be launched into the case of the burnt body.