India: Woman whose death led to jailing of husband found alive
Sonia Devi was kidnapped by human traffickers and taken to Delhi
Patna: A woman from Bihar whose alleged murder led to the jailing of her husband and in-laws has been found alive.
The court has made harsh comments on the police investigations imposed heavy fine on the accused cop whose faulty investigations landed innocent people in jail.
Court officials said Sonia Devi, a resident of Supaul district, had left for her parents’ home in May 2018 when she went missing. A day later the body of an unidentified woman was recovered from the field after which the parents of the missing woman registered a murder case against her in-laws while identifying the body as that of their daughter.
Acting on the written complaint, the police swung into action and arrested all the accused people who were later jailed. In their investigation report, the police also confirmed the dead woman as the missing lady and submitted the report to the court. Based on the investigation report, the local court denied bail to the accused.
The case took an interesting turn when the missing woman called her in-laws from Delhi saying she had been lured by human traffickers and wanted to return home. Subsequently, her in-laws brought her from Delhi and presented her before the court to show how the police had sent innocent people to jail in a fake case and how the woman declared dead by the police was alive.
Subsequently, the court granted bail to all the accused and passed serious remarks over the functioning of the Bihar police. “Innocent persons had to stay in jail for months due to faulty investigations by the police. This is a black spot on the face of the police,” the court observed in its judgement. Over this weekend, the court later acquitted all the accused persons and closed the case while asking the police to pay compensation of Rs600,000 to the victims.
The incident has exposed the police investigation in the state, inviting bitter criticisms from various quarters. “I was stripped naked, beaten up and sent to jail despite my repeated appeal to properly investigate the case. The police didn’t investigate the case and implicated me and my parents in the murder case,” the woman’s husband, Ranjit Paswan, told the media on Monday.
Devi said she fell into the human traffickers’ gang once she left her home to reach her parents’ house on the fateful day. “I was intoxicated and put on a train. When I regained consciousness I found myself in Delhi and secretly called up my in-laws,” revealed Sonia whose presence ultimately led to acquittal of her in-laws from the case. According to the woman, it took a long time to contact her family since a lot of time was spent in searching for their cell phone numbers.