Model Town: Despite post-mortem, family of Dalit girl alleges rape and foul play in death

New Delhi: Even as a post mortem has declared the death of a 17-year-old Dalit girl as death by suicide, in North Delhi's Model Town, the family has claimed foul play into the death. Interestingly, the postmortem also mentions signs of healed vaginal tissue.

Student bodies have been demanding an FIR after the family has alleged rape and murder of the Dalit girl, who was found dead at her employer's house in Model Town. According to the family, they spoke to the minor at 3.15 pm on October 4, after which the same evening they saw her dead body hanging in her employer's house.

At their small one-room house in Kalyan Vihar, her uncle said that the family never got a hint of grievance from their niece since she started working at the house from early September. "She never told us about any issue she had faced with the employer until the last time we talked to her on the day before her death," he said.

The post mortem was done on October 8, four days after the "body was kept without the knowledge of family" at Safdarjung Hospital. Although the report suggests death due to asphyxiation, the report mentions "hymen showed old healed tear at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock positions rest within normal limits".

"A hymen tear will happen anytime a person has intercourse for the first time. Now, whether it is forced intercourse or consensual, the tear will, by and large, be the same," Dr. Archana Bajaj, Gynecologist at Nurture IVF Centre told Millennium Post.

The family said the events leading up to the death needed to be questioned, which is why they want to file an FIR. "The way we were treated by the police and how the family has not even said a word about the whole incident shows something has happened. When we spoke to her, she was absolutely fine," Kusum, aunt of the victim told Millennium Post.

The girl's body was also found in the driver's room, to which the victim had refused to go in a day before her death.

"I received a call at 5:30 pm where the employer's daughter, who lives in Kamala Nagar, informed us that my niece has locked herself inside the driver's room and is not responding despite repeated pleas. When I went to the house, a battery of policemen were present there, who told me that nothing had happened to my niece and rather began interrogating me," Kusum said.

Police, however, have denied the family's claims, saying that no foul play has been observed in the investigation into the case. "An inquest was done and post mortem findings are conclusive of a suicide," they said in a press note.