A security guard and a factory worker have been arrested on charges of abetment of suicide in connection with the death of a 25-year-old unmarried woman who was nearly six months pregnant and whose body was found near her house in Kanpur last week.
The woman was working at a private firm in Kanpur.
Police said they will conduct a paternity test as DNA samples of both arrested men, identified as Arvind alias Gole Pandey (56), the security guard, and Pranjul Pal (28), the factory worker, will be collected and matched with the sample preserved from the foetus.
An analysis of the victim’s phone call records revealed she was in regular contact with the two men and police suspect she was in a relationship with them, police said.
She consumed a poisonous substance after the men ignored her and failed to support her after she became pregnant, they added.
The woman’s father also named the two men in the police complaint.
The post-mortem examination did not conclusively establish the cause of the victim’s death, police said, adding her viscera has been preserved for further examination.
“The accused were produced in a court, which remanded them to judicial custody,” said the in-charge of the police station concerned.
Police said Arvind, a resident of Kanpur, had been working as a security guard at a factory, where he lost one of his hands in an accident while Pranjul, who hails from Fatehpur district, is employed as a worker in a factory in Kanpur.
“Foetus sample has been preserved. We will conduct a paternity test,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police Krishnakant Yadav.
During the preliminary inquiry, police found the accused had allegedly been in physical relationships with the victim, following which she became pregnant.
Police said the inquiry also revealed that Pandey went to the victim after she called him and took her to a hospital, where she died during treatment on April 12. Pandey allegedly then brought her body back in an ambulance and left it in a field near her residence before fleeing.
According to police, on August 13 they were informed about the body of a woman lying in a field. A police team reached the spot, took the body into custody and sent it for post-mortem examination. The victim’s family also arrived at the spot and identified the body.
