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Eunuch's stomach and legs bore wounds and there was mud in her fingernails; it looked like she struggled
A eunuch, whose body was found near the Nelamangala highway on Wednesday, was raped and thrown out of a moving vehicle, an NGO said.
Police, however, first denied the incident, then said it was a suicide.
Puttalakshmi's (30) body was found 10 metres away from the Nelamangala highway. The people who discovered the body informed the police and local NGO Suraksha, which works for Aids awareness.
"We saw the body. She seems to have been raped and then killed. We suspect she was thrown out of a moving vehicle. Her stomach and legs have wounds. There is mud in her fingernails. She seems to have struggled before dying. We have seen many such cases before and can identify if it's a murder or a suicide," said Mangesh, Suraksha co-ordinator.
Some members of the hijra community are asking the police to hush up the case. "Hijras stand by their people only when they earn for them. Once they are dead, they do not want to have anything to do with them. They do not want to be questioned by the police. So, they also want the case to close as a suicide," said Anand, another co-ordinator of Suraksha.
The NGO has lodged a complaint with the police, after which the body was sent for post-mortem.
The police version
When MiD DAY contacted Nelamangala police, they denied knowledge of the incident even though NGO workers were protesting outside the police station. "No such incident has come to my notice," said inspector A P Raja.
When we again called the station landline, a constable said a hijira's suicide had been reported.
On Monday, a retired IISc professor, his wife and mentally-disabled son were found murdered in RT Nagar. On Tuesday, an assistant sub-inspector's son was hacked to death during the day in Jayanagar. If the hijra's death is a murder, this would be the third murder case in three days. | 
