Jammu: A man who died under mysterious circumstances nine months ago in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir was actually murdered by his own relatives to gain property, a police official said today.

Puran Chand was found dead in a village in the Pouni area on June 18, last year, and subsequently inquest proceedings were initiated to ascertain the cause of his death, he said.

The official said during the course of inquiry, post mortem examination of the deceased was conducted and the viscera was sent to the forensic laboratory.

On getting the post-morten report and the statement of the witnesses, it came to fore that Chand’s step sisters Neelam Kumari and Chinta Devi along with their mother Satya Devi and nephew Dheeraj Kumar had murdered him with the ulterior motive to gain property.

“They did not want Chand to inherit the property since he was adopted son of Dhani Ram,” he said, adding that the inquest proceedings were converted into a murder case on March 8.

The women, however, rejected the charge of murdering Chand and one of them claimed that she was raped by several policemen, including an officer, during investigation of the case, a charge denied by the police.

The women had levelled the allegations at a press conference yesterday.

“The women had levelled false and frivolous allegations on the team which was inquiring into the inquest proceedings in this case,” the officer said.

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