Victim in hotel murder may have been raped
Victim in hotel murder may have been raped
JAKARTA (JP): The Malaysian businessman charged with killing a
local woman in a five-star hotel in Central Jakarta on Monday may
have raped the victim before the killing, a police officer said
yesterday.
A postmortem examination by the Cipto Mangunkusumo General
Hospital stated that the victim had been a virgin and was raped,
a senior detective who asked not to be unidentified told The
Jakarta Post.
"The autopsy report reveals that the hymen was torn and there
was damage to certain tissue which strongly indicates that she
was raped," said the officer.
Police have proven the blood under the victim's fingernails is
of the same type of the suspect's.
Earlier police said that Charanjit Dadwall, 26, a Malaysian
textile businessman of Indian origin who goes by two other names:
Charanjit Singh and Gan Singh, was accused only of the killing.
If found guilty, the Malaysian could serve a maximum of 15
years in prison for the murder and a maximum of 12 years for
rape.
According to the source, Dadwall initially told police
interrogators varying versions.
During initial police questioning, the newly-married suspect
said that he strangled Wati, 26, to death after the victim forced
him to pay Rp 1 million (US$440) in cash after they had sex in
the hotel room on Monday.
The suspect quoted the victim as saying she was a virgin.
Later the suspect told interrogators that he became enraged
when the victim threatened to tell her brother that they had
intercourse if he refused to meet her demand to marry her,
according to the source.
"He might try to find a strong alibi because police have no
more chance to talk with the victim," he said.
"We do have some strong scientific evidence to name him as the
main suspect," the source added.
Among the evidence is fingernail scratch marks on Dadwall's
face and body, the suspect's blood under the victim's
fingernails, his hair on the victim's body and the victim's blood
and fingerprints in Dadwall's hotel room.
The officer believed that Wati, who was introduced to the
suspect by a friend a few days before she was killed, went to the
hotel with the suspect of her own will because she liked the man.
Police preliminary questioning determined that after
strangling the woman, Dadwall moved her body to the floor below,
near the emergency stairs.
Her body was found by a hotel security guard in the morning
while Dadwall was arrested few hours later at a nearby building,
where he was to obtain a plane ticket to leave for Kuala Lumpur.
(bsr)