A 24-year-old woman was found dead at her grandmother’s residence in Telangana’s Medchal-Malkajgiri district, about 25 km from Hyderabad, on Friday morning, nearly a month after a 24-year-old man allegedly injected his own HIV-positive blood into her for refusing to marry him, police said.
According to an official from Pocharam IT Corridor police station, the woman was found hanging in her room at around 10 am when her grandmother had gone out for some work.
The accused, who happens to be the victim’s close relative, was arrested on March 15 by the police and is currently in jail on remand.
“Inquiries with her relatives said she had been in depression, ever since the accused injected HIV-positive blood into her on March 11. She took to the extreme step on Friday morning, when she was alone,” the police official said, adding that her body was sent to Gandhi Hospital for post-mortem.
The police, who initially booked a case under Section 109 (attempt to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, against the accused, would alter the case, adding Section 306 (abetment to suicide), police said.
According to police, the woman’s father was originally planning to get his daughter married to the accused, who is also their close relative. However, as the parents of the accused were suffering from HIV, he was apprehensive that the accused might also be HIV-positive.
Six months ago, the woman’s father had the accused undergo an HIV test at a laboratory in Uppal. “The test results showed that the accused was HIV-positive. As a result, the woman’s family called off the proposed marriage,” the police said.
On March 11, when the woman was alone at home, the accused went to her house with a syringe containing his blood and forcibly injected it into her before fleeing the spot. “The family then took her to a private hospital at Uppal. The woman told her parents that the accused had forcibly injected her with a syringe containing his blood in an attempt to compel her to marry him,” the police said.
Two days later, the family lodged a complaint with the Pocharam IT Corridor police. Based on the complaint, we launched a manhunt for the accused and arrested him on March 15 and produced him before a local court which remanded him to judicial custody.
