Uttarakhand Police, which is probing the murder of Moumita Das, 27, have said that the woman, an art teacher at a Gurgaon school, was raped before being killed by the driver of their hired vehicle and his friends at Chakrata.
Moumita Das along with her partner Avijit Paul, who lived in Delhi’s Lado Sarai area, had gone to Chakrata to celebrate Diwali but were missing since October 23. The four men – driver Raju Das and his pals – first murdered Avijit, took the Rs 2,000 he had in his wallet, and then targeted Moumita.
Four men — cab driver Raju Das, Bablu, Guddu and Kundan — had been arrested, senior Uttarakhand police officer Swapan Kishore Singh said. He is part of one of the three teams investigating the sensational crime.
“Raju had confessed that he raped the girl, but we are still interrogating if the others were also involved,” Uttarkashi superintendent of police Jagatram Joshi told media persons. A source identified the man as Bablu.
The body of the woman, a teacher with a Gurgaon school, is yet to be found. “We are trying to find the girl’s body. This will help establish if she was raped or not,” Joshi said.
Circle officer Swapn Kishore Singh of Vikas Nagar said, “On Monday, Raju tried to mislead us by saying that the crime was committed on October 24 and not the day before. He repeatedly changed his statement about dumping the bodies.”
According to the police, the couple spent time at Tiger Falls, after which Raju drove them towards Lakhamandal, rather than returning to Chakrata. Between Quansi and Lakhamandal, they looted the couple. While one of the men pinned Moumita down, the three others strangled Avijit. His body was trussed up and placed in the rear of the vehicle and Moumita was made to sit beside it. Raju then drove to a secluded spot about 2km away, where she was raped by Babloo. One of the men then strangled her with her scarf even as the two others pinned her down.
