Death of Rumpa: No evidence of rape found in autopsy, says doctor

An autopsy on Stamford University student Rubaiyat Sharmin Rumpa, who was found dead on a Dhaka street, did not find any evidence of rape on her body, according to Sohel Mahmud, chief of the forensic department at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

He made the disclosure after receiving a partial report on the post-mortem examination on Saturday.

But it is likely to take coroners a few more days to release the full report, he said.

"The samples that were collected during the post-mortem examination were sent to forensic experts for analysis. We have since received the microbiological report which did not find any signs of rape," said Sohel.

The preliminary report will be handed over to investigators on Sunday, according to Sohel.

"Two other reports are pending. We will submit the full autopsy report after talking to the investigation officers, considering the overall circumstances."

The authorities will be able to conclude whether Rumpa was murdered or died by suicide once the full report is out, said Sohel.

Rumpa’s body was found on a street in the capital’s Siddheswari on Dec 4. A case of murder was started by Ramna Police Station's Sub-Inspector Abul Khair on the same day against unidentified suspects due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death.

The authorities only identified the body as Rumpa's a day later when it was revealed that she was the daughter of Rokon Uddin, a police inspector posted in Habiganj. She lived with her mother and brother in Dhaka's Malibagh.

Students and teachers of Stamford University subsequently launched protests demanding a proper investigation into the death of Rumpa. One of Rumpa’s classmates later told a TV station that Rumpa had been seeing Abdur Rahman Saikat, 22, a BBA student of Adamjee Cantonment College, for several months before they broke up recently.

Police later detained Saikat in the capital's Khilgaon.

Besides Ramna Police Station, the Detective Branch is also investigating the case, in which the death of Rumpa is mentioned as a murder, but the investigators said they were waiting for the post-mortem examination report to confirm whether it was a murder, or suicide or accident.

The case has baffled police who are yet to find out how Rumpa’s body ended up on a street in the capital’s Siddheswari, about half a kilometre from her home at Shantibagh, on Dec 4 night.

She is presumed to have died after falling from a multi-storey building.