PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Haridwar
After nearly a month’s relentless investigation, Haridwar police have cracked the murder of an unidentified woman whose body was found under bushes near the Chandi Devi ropeway. Identifying the body proved a major challenge for the police. Finally, a police team led by SSP Navneet Singh solved the mystery of the unidentified body and arrested three accused based on technical investigation, CCTV analysis and mobile data.
On May 10, a woman’s decomposed body had been found under bushes near the ropeway of the Chandi Devi temple in the Shyampur area. The body had been unclothed with her face completely disfigured. Only a broken mangalsutra, earrings, a scarf and a blouse tied around her neck had been recovered from the scene.
During the investigation, police examined over 600 hours of CCTV footage, verified 164 missing women bearing the same Kaushalya reported across the country since 2019 and collected data on 3,540 women listed in electoral records. In addition, thousands of mobile phone numbers and data were analysed.
Eventually, police found footage from May 8 showing a woman with three young men heading toward Chandi Devi and the woman was not with them on their return journey. Based on technical evidence, police arrived in Banda in Uttar Pradesh and arrested Ramprakash alias Govinda, Rakesh and Chhedilal.
The investigation revealed that Kaushalya had had an affair with Ramprakash. “Kaushalya kept pressuring Ramprakash, who was already married, to marry her. Finding himself in a bind, he decided to do away with the woman. He roped in his brother and brother-in-law in the plan and then lured her to Haridwar on the pretext of visiting Chandi Devi and strangled her to death,” said a police officer privy to the details.
Happy over the police team having solved a blind case, the inspector general of police, Garhwal, announced a reward Rs 5,000, while the SSP, Haridwar, announced a reward of Rs 2,500 for the team.
