PRAYAGRAJ: A 38-year-old soldier was found murdered in his car late Friday at Neem Sarai area of Prayagraj. His family found him slouched in the rear seat of the car with critical head injuries. He was rushed to Military Hospital, Prayagraj, where doctors declared him dead. The body has been sent for autopsy.
Police registered an FIR against unidentified persons and a woman, who was with the soldier at the time of the murder. The woman, who has been detained, told police she was gang-raped by the assailants.
SP (City) Dinesh Kumar Singh said, “The soldier, Ashutosh Kumar Singh, was a havildar with the army and posted at Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir. He had come home on leave a few weeks back and was set to return to his command post.”
His father Ashok Kumar Singh told police that Ashutosh left home on Friday night on an errand. “At 10pm, Ashutosh’s wife received a call from a woman who informed her that Ashutosh was critically injured and his car was parked at Neem Sarai area. Family members rushed to the site and found him lying in a pool of blood,” Singh said.
The woman told the soldier’s kin that she was accompanying Ashutosh to check out a plot, when they decided to buy momos, but lost their way and ended up in Neem Sarai, where they were stopped by criminals. When the soldier asked the men to give way, they attacked him with bricks, police said.
On a complaint by family members, an FIR has been registered against the woman accompanying Ashutosh and unidentified criminals, said SP Dinesh Singh. “During questioning, she claimed that the attackers tried to rape her. Later, she changed her statement and claimed she had been gang-raped. Due to her conflicting statements, her clothes are being sent for forensic test and she will undergo a medical examination,” he added.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)