Mussoorie murder case: Police investigation reveals woman was brutally gang raped and strangled to death

Almost a month after a 23-year-old, newly married woman’s body was found hanging from a tree in Mussoorie’s Chuna Khala area, police said on Thursday that their preliminary investigations revealed that it was a supposed case of a gruesome rape and murder.

The unraveling of the incident has left the hill town of Mussoorie shocked.

The deceased was reportedly raped and murdered by nine contractual workers who had come from Bihar and were working in the hill town. The nine had reportedly, raped and killed the woman by strangulating her. The later burnt her face with acid and hung her on the tree to portray the case as suicide.
While the five have been arrested under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destroying evidence), 376D (gang rape) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, four other accused are still absconding. The five accused have been sent to Dehradun jail.

However, her belongings and a SIM card was located nearby and that led the police team, investigating the case, to her murderers.

Mussoorie inspector Rajeev Rauthan and one of the eight investigating officers said, “The woman had asked for one of the accused, Pramod Mandal’s cellphone to make a call to one of her friends on July 16. The call details of the friend and Mandal’s SIM card led the police to the accused. On questioning, Mandal admitted to the crime and named the eight other accused in the case.”