The Hill Palace police have launched an investigation into a case registered for rape based on a statement by a woman who was arrested and remains in judicial custody after being charged for strangulating her newborn earlier this month.
The case was originally registered by the Ernakulam Town South police after recording the statement of the 23-year-old woman who remains admitted in a city hospital after securing the permission of the magistrate. According to the police, the woman alleged that she was lured into sexual relation by the accused on the promise of marriage. However, the police declined to reveal the identity of the suspect on the ground that he was yet to be nabbed and that he might go into hiding if exposed.
“We had registered the case on Tuesday and had since transferred it to the Hill Palace police since the rape had taken place in their limits. They have since re-registered the case and launched a probe. The two had met over Instagram through their common interest for dance,” said police sources.
The police had arrested the woman and registered a case of murder on May 3. She was initially admitted at the Ernakulam General Hospital and was later shifted to a private hospital reportedly owing to delivery-related complications.
The initial charge of murder was validated after the autopsy report that emerged later in the evening confirmed it. She had allegedly smothered her baby within three hours of delivery in her bathroom and then hurled the body wrapped in a plastic cover on the road from her apartment at Panamppilly Nagar. The police had absolved her parents of any wrongdoing and this was corroborated by the accused as well in her statement. They were reportedly unaware of her pregnancy and the delivery behind closed doors in their apartment.
