Attempted Strangulation, Fracture in Neck: Postmortem Report of Hathras Rape Victim Reveals Brutality

The postmortem of the 20-year-old Dalit woman, who died in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Tuesday a fortnight after being gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district, has revealed that she suffered a fracture in her neck as a result of repeated strangulation.

The report makes observations about “injury to the cervical spine produced by indirect trauma and its resultant sequelae.” The accused strangled her repeatedly, resulting in the fracture in the neck, the report confirmed, while also mentioning a ligature mark over the neck. “The ligature mark over the neck is consistent with attempted strangulation but did not contribute to death in this case,” it said.

The report, which has been signed by three doctors, said, fracture of C6 cervical vertebra was present with extravasations of blood along the fracture line.

The postmortem was conducted by doctors of Safdarjung Hospital in the presence of police personnel, sources had earlier told news agency PTI.

The woman’s father and cousin sat on a dharna outside the hospital on Tuesday. They were joined by Bhim Army and Congress workers before the body was taken to Uttar Pradesh.

The 20-year-old Dalit woman was raped in a village in UP’s Hathras by four men on September 14. The woman had died two weeks after she was attacked brutally while helping her mother in the fields. She had suffered multiple fractures, paralysis and a gash in her tongue in the horrific assault.

She was admitted to Aligarh Muslim University’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital and shifted to Safdarjung Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday. The woman was cremated in Hathras during the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging that the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.

All four attackers, upper-caste men from the woman’s village, are in jail. They will now also be charged with murder. The UP police is under scrutiny over alleged lapses throughout the case, and the inexplicable rush in cremation has further added to anger and confusion in the village.