There is a bizarre twist in the murder case where the body of a newlywed woman was found in a suitcase in Ghaziabad on July 27.
The body was identified as that of Varisha, a resident of the Harduaganj area of Aligarh, by her brother Ismail. But on Monday, Varisha turned up at Gandhi Park police station in Aligarh and said she was alive and was in Noida all this while, police said.
Ismail had lodged the complaint in Bulandshahr’s Kotwali police station against her husband Aamir Khan and her in-laws accusing them of murder because of the family’s inability to pay dowry. The police had registered an FIR and arrested Aamir and his parents under Prevention of Dowry Act..
Defending the police, Santosh Kumar Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bulandshahr, said, “The body was identified by family members twice. Once in Ghaziabad and second time before the post-mortem in Bulandshahr. However, we still had a doubt so the viscera was preserved and the DNA sample taken as a precautionary measure,” he said.
Mr. Singh said the girl who was now claiming to be Varisha told the Aligarh police that she was tortured by her in-laws because of dowry. “She said one day after being beaten by her husband, she escaped to Bhangel area of Noida where she worked before marriage. When the news of her murder spread, she reached Aligarh, met a police constable, and narrated her story. So, we are dropping only Section 304 (culpable homicide amounting to murder) from the FIR against her husband and her in-laws. The rest of the charges will stay.”
‘Distinct similarity’
The SSP said it was a unique case in his career. “The mother and brother were certain that the body was that of Varisha. There is indeed a distinct similarity between Varisha and the deceased. She was wearing a toe ring. When we told that it is Hindu women who usually sport it, her mother insisted that Varisha used to wear them,” he said.
