Rape Victim: Villagers halt cremation of ‘raped’ woman due to fear of bad luck | Bhubaneswar News
SAMBALPUR: Suspecting that a woman from their village had been raped before her murder, locals refused to cremate her in the village claiming it will bring them bad luck. Police, who said they are awaiting the autopsy report to confirm rape, took help from the district administration to perform the cremation of the 25-year-old woman in Rairakhol town, some 40 km from the village, on Tuesday evening.
Villagers claimed her private parts were brutalised, but police said they will still await the final autopsy report before making any comment.
“As the villagers did not allow the cremation, we brought her body to Rairakhol cremation centre and performed her last rites there in the presence of her family members,” Rairakhol sub-collector Rasmi Ranjan Mahanta said, adding that they tried to convince the villagers, but failed.
The district administration tried to perform the woman’s last rites at a nearby village, but there, too, the locals refused. “Saying that cremating a rape victim will bring them bad luck, they also refused,” a police officer said.
On Sunday, the woman’s naked body was found by people from another village in a jungle. She had gone missing on Friday after leaving home to take a bath in a stream near her village, prompting a frantic search from her family. Her father later lodged a police complaint.
After her body was found, villagers informed the police, who sent it for an autopsy. Later, villagers blocked the Rairakhol-Angul road demanding immediate arrest of the accused. Police arrested Hari Behera (30), a neighbour of the woman.
Sub-divisional police officer Prasanta Meher said while the accused has confessed to having killed the woman, he has denied having raped her. “But we are trying to find out the possible motive,” Meher said.
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