Brother of Delhi-based woman tourist identifies body

The decomposed body of a woman recovered from the Yamuna river in Uttarkashi district on November 13 has been identified to be that of the Delhi-based woman tourist who was allegedly raped and murdered along with her male companion by a taxi driver and three others.
The body was identified to be that of the 27-year-old woman by her brother yesterday who reached Uttarkashi from West Bengal, following which a postmortem was carried out, Circle Officer (Barkot) Mahendra Singh Rawat said here today.
Later, the body was cremated at the Kedar Ghats of Bhagirathi river in Uttarakashi, he added.
The woman tourist and her 24-year-old male companion named Avijit had gone missing from the state capital over a fortnight ago while returning from Tiger Falls about 30 km from Chakrata on October 23 during a trip to Uttarakhand.

As there was no news about them for several days, the woman's father lodged a complaint in Delhi on October 29.
During investigation, it was found that a taxi driver and his three accomplices had allegedly strangulated Avjit first, then raped the woman and robbed them before disposing of their bodies at two different places.

The body of the woman was recovered on November 13 by a joint search party of the police and SDRF from the river about 2 km beyond Damta in Uttarkashi district. Avjit's body was recovered on October 30 itself.
Rawat said the Uttarkhand police will seek custody of the driver and his accomplices, who have been arrested, in order to take them at the crime spot and also the location where the accused had disposed off the victims' bags.

The woman, who taught at a school in Gurgaon, and her male companion, a resident of Dumdum in Kolkata, had arrived in Dehradun on October 21 to celebrate Diwali and left the next day for Chakrata, about 135 km from here after hiring a taxi.