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A nurse was raped and murdered while returning home from a hospital in Uttarakhand. Her body was discovered nine days later in Uttar Pradesh, a shocking incident that has sparked widespread outrage and calls for justice. The nurse had left her workplace on July 30 and was last seen boarding an e-rickshaw from Indra Chowk in Rudrapur, as captured by CCTV footage. However, she never reached her rented accommodation on Kashipur Road in Bilaspur, Uttar Pradesh, where she lived with her 11-year-old daughter.
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The next day, when the nurse failed to return home, her sister filed a missing person report. Eight days later, on August 8, the police found her body in an empty plot approximately 1.5 kilometers from her residence in Dibdiba village, Uttar Pradesh. The discovery of her body brought an end to the agonizing search, but it also marked the beginning of a deeper investigation into the crime.
The police immediately sent the body for a post-mortem examination and launched an investigation to identify the perpetrator. They traced the victim’s stolen mobile phone, which led them to Dharmendra, a daily wage laborer from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. Dharmendra was arrested from Rajasthan on Wednesday. According to the police, Dharmendra was intoxicated when he followed the nurse and attacked her near her apartment building. He dragged her into nearby bushes, raped her, and then strangled her with her scarf. Before fleeing the scene, he stole her phone and ₹3,000 from her purse.
This horrifying crime occurred amidst a nationwide outcry over another brutal rape and murder in Kolkata. A female trainee doctor was found partially clothed in the seminar hall of a government-run hospital, further fueling the outrage. These incidents have reignited calls for stronger safety measures for healthcare workers, with resident doctors across the country demanding the passage of the Central Healthcare Protection Act to prevent such attacks on medical personnel.
