Assam man facing Pocso case released on bail, kills woman who filed FIR

SILCHAR: A 30-year-old man released on bail in an attempted rape case on Tuesday killed the woman who had filed the police complaint for trying to rape a minor in 2023, police said.

Police said the suspect, Mukha Basumatary, who was previously in jail for trying to rape a minor girl, was arrested for murder in Assam’s Chirang district on Wednesday morning.

Chirang superintendent of police (SP) Akshat Garg said the accused was being interrogated. “The body has been sent for postmortem and our officials have collected some important evidence,” he said.

Mukha Basumatary had been arrested earlier this year under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act in connection with a 2023 case registered in connection with the attempted rape of a minor girl.

The FIR had been registered against him on the basis of a complaint lodged by the woman who pursued the case. Last week, Basumatary was granted bail by a local court.

Basumatary was released from the district jail on Tuesday afternoon and went straight to the woman’s village under Chirang’s Runikata police station.

The 40-year-old woman was at her home alone when Basumatary barged into the house and repeatedly stabbed her with a sharp-edged weapon.

“The deceased woman was a family member of the minor girl and this looks like a case of revenge. We have arrested the accused and further investigation is going on,” a senior police officer said.

Villagers alerted the police who took the woman to a nearby hospital. But she died before reaching the hospital.