Woman's Half-Naked Body Found Dumped Near Riverside, Police Suspect Rape

A half-naked body of a woman was found dumped near a riverside in India. The police suspect the woman, believed to be in her twenties, was raped and killed.

The victim, whose body was found in Jajpur, a town in the state of Odisha, has not been identified. According to New Indian Express, local authorities recovered the corpse, which was found Monday night, from the Genguti riverbed near Gopinathpur village early Tuesday. Local residents had initially spotted the body and alerted the police. After retrieving the body, the police sent it for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

The police said they seized a wooden plank, gold ornaments and a purse from near the woman’s body. A senior police officer, identified as Jagdish Kar, said a case of murder has been registered, and that an investigation was underway into the incident, Orissa Post reported.

“We are trying to establish the identity of the deceased. The cause of death will be known after the autopsy report,” Kar said.

It was not clear when the woman had been killed. The police are also trying to find evidence that could help them identify the suspect in the case.

The incident comes as the state of Odisha braced for Cyclone Yaas, which forced a massive evacuation of 1 million people.

Last month, a naked body of an 8-year-old girl was found on the railway tracks. The victim's family alleged the child was gang raped and murdered in the state of Bihar. The girl had gone out of her home, and when she did not return, her father began searching for her. “When she didn’t return home, we searched for her throughout the night and recovered her naked body on the rail track early on Thursday morning. She was gang raped before being murdered,” the victim's relative alleged. The police launched an investigation into the case.

India recorded 88 rape cases every day in 2019, a National Crime Records Bureau report released last year stated. The data showed the rape vulnerability of a girl or woman increased up to 44% in the last 10 years.