Aligarh: In a dramatic turn of events, police pulled out a newly married 24-year-old girl, Rachna Sisodia, from her funeral pyre after her family alleged that she was being burned alive in the name of cremation by her husband.
Intriguingly, while her death summary from a Noida hospital said she died on February 25 — a day before the cremation — from heart complications, the post-mortem report in Aligarh said ash found in her respiratory tract suggested she may have been alive and breathing when she was being cremated.
Rachna, who suffered 70% burns by the time her body was pulled out, went missing from her house in Bulandshahr on December 13 last year. Cops have filed multiple cases against her husband, Devesh Chaudhary (23), and 11 others. Kailash Singh, Rachna's maternal uncle, said, "We searched for her at various places, but all in vain.
Later, we got to know she was living with Devesh. We visited his village in Aligarh but failed to find her there as well." According to their neighbours, the couple stayed in Aligarh for a very short time after their marriage and later shifted to Noida where Rachna was pursuing graduation.
Police said the girl was admitted to Sharda Hospital's School of Medical Science & Research in Greater Noida on February 23 and died there two days later.
According to the death summary given by the hospital, she was admitted with fever and shivering, breathlessness, abdominal pain, palpitation and loose motions on February 23 at 8am and passed away on February 25 at 11:45pm following "cardiorespiratory arrest and acute respiratory distress syndrome".
While the doctors at Sharda stood by their diagnosis, everyone in the medical fraternity was perplexed with the contradictions in the reports. Dr Pankaj Mishra, who conducted the post-mortem, said that since the body was 70% burnt he couldn't say for sure if it was indeed Rachna's.
Speaking from an unknown location, Devesh said he and his relatives were being framed by his in-laws' at the behest of his own uncle who wants his prorperty.
