Man Preserves Daughter's Body In Salt Pit, Demands Re-Autopsy Claiming She Was Raped, Murdered

A man in India is fighting to bring justice for his deceased 21-year-old daughter, who was allegedly kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a group of men. The tribal man preserved his daughter's body in a salt pit, demanding a re-autopsy after cops initially ruled her death a suicide, reports said.

The unidentified 21-year-old woman from Nandurbar, a tribal district in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, was found dead on Aug. 1 at a settlement 20 km away from her home.

After an autopsy, police determined that the woman killed herself by hanging. However, the victim's father believes that his daughter was murdered after she was kidnapped and raped by four men, The Indian Express reported Friday.

The victim's family claims that the doctor who conducted the autopsy did not examine the victim's body for rape as a police officer asked him only to look for injuries on the body. The family said they have a call recording of the conversation with the doctor, where he reportedly admitted to botching up the medical examination as requested by the cops.

Demanding a re-autopsy and an investigation into the alleged rape, the father preserved the daughter's body in the salt pit, a technique traditionally used by locals to preserve and mummify bodies.

"My daughter did not commit suicide. After being raped, she was killed and hanged from a tree," the grieving father said. "I have kept the body in a salt pit for re-postmortem. No cremation will take place unless the post-mortem is done again," he added.

After the girl's body was preserved for 44 days, police agreed to conduct a re-autopsy and arrested three suspects in connection with the incident. The suspects, identified as Ranjit Thackeray, 19, Hana Valvi,21, and Gotu Valvi, 18, were arrested for allegedly kidnapping the woman while she was on the way to her house, police said, as reported by Firstpost.

"If the body had decomposed, the police would have gotten another reason to deny us justice. So, I had to preserve the body hoping for a second post-mortem that would bring the truth out," the father said.

A day after the kidnapping, the victim reportedly called her father saying that she was raped by the men who have also threatened to kill her. The victim's body was later found hanging from a tree, police said.