This story is from February 18, 2021

Budaun horror: Priest to face trial for rape, murder

About one-and-a-half month after an anganwadi worker, 40, was killed on the premises of a temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun district, the state police have filed a charge-sheet in a court and invoked rape and murder charges against the main accused, a priest. The two other accused in the case were spared the stringent charges and were booked for causing disappearance of evidence. In the FIR, filed two days after the woman’s death on January 3, all the three accused were booked for gang-rape and murder.
Budaun horror: Priest to face trial for rape, murder
The seriously injured woman was dumped by the three accused at her house on the night of January 3
BAREILLY: About one-and-a-half month after an anganwadi worker, 40, was killed on the premises of a temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun district, the state police have filed a charge-sheet in a court and invoked rape and murder charges against the main accused, a priest. The two other accused in the case were spared the stringent charges and were booked for causing disappearance of evidence.
In the FIR, filed two days after the woman’s death on January 3, all the three accused were booked for gang-rape and murder.
The seriously injured woman was dumped by the three accused at her home on the night of January 3. She had died in the arms of her husband a few minutes later. Initially, local police had tried to pass it off as a case of accident. But as the brutality of the crime came to the fore, and grabbed national attention, several policemen were suspended and an FIR was filed on January 5. Station house officer (SHO) and an outpost in-charge were booked after it was found that they did not take prompt action in the case and delayed the autopsy for many hours.
The family of the woman had alleged that she was raped and murdered inside the temple by priest Satyaveer Singh alias Satyanarayan and his two disciples. The woman's husband who was unable to deal with the trauma was later admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
All the three accused were arrested and sent to jail. The post-mortem report had confirmed that the woman sustained multiple injuries, including some deep ones in her private part as well.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Budaun, Sankalp Sharma, told TOI, “During our probe after filing of the FIR, statements of witnesses, doctors of private hospitals and forensic reports were taken into consideration. We have now filed charge-sheet in the court where we have booked priest Satyanarayan under IPC sections 376 (rape), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence). The rape and murder charges have been dropped against his two disciples. They were booked for causing disappearance of evidence.”

The National Commission for Women (NCW) had also taken note of the incident. But a member of the NCW team had stirred a controversy with her comment, inviting rebuttal from her chief.
“If women do (venture out), they should be accompanied by someone. I think if she (the victim) had not gone out in the evening, or had a child of the family accompanied her, it would not have happened,” NCW’s Chandramukhi Devi had told reporters on her visit to the victim’s village. She, however, had added, “There is clear negligence on the part of the police. They could have saved the woman’s life. The autopsy report suggests the extent of brutality.”
Devi’s comments had drawn sharp criticism from all quarters. NCW chief also issued a clarification. “I don’t know how and why the member (Chandramukhi Devi) said this but women have all the right to move as per their will whenever and wherever they want to. It’s society and state’s duty to make places safe for women,” Rekha Sharma had said in a tweet.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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About the Author
Kanwardeep Singh

Kanwardeep Singh, an MBA and a journalist by accident, writes on crime against women, health and wildlife for TOI. Digging deeper for informational writing and piquing interest of readers are his USP.

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