‘Murdered’ Panipat girl found alive in HP

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, September 7

A BA final-year student from Barana village, who was believed to have been murdered after a body was found in a Gaushala Temple room on Tuesday evening, was arrested from a Shimla hotel, along with main accused Krishan, this morning. 

The body found in the temple room was identified as that of Jyoti’s on the basis of her college identity card that was found lying nearby.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The police had been on the lookout for suspect Krishan of Atawla village (a final-year student of SD College) in connection with the murder of Jyoti, a BA-III student of Arya PG College, since then.

Yesterday night, the police got information that Krishan was staying in a Shimla hotel. This morning, the police reached the spot and were surprised to see Krishan and Jyoti staying together in a hotel room near the Shimla bus stand. They were arrested and brought to Panipat.

Investigations indicate that the body found in the Gaushala Temple room was that of Simran of Azaad Nagar. She was a BA-II student of SD College.

Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma said the accused had hatched a conspiracy to mislead the police and their parents. They told the police they had strangled Simran to death and then defaced her body with acid to conceal her identity. Thereafter, they changed her clothes with that of Jyoti’s and left the identity card, mobile phone and bag of Jyoti there so that the body got identified as that of Jyoti’s.

Jyoti was produced in a local court in the evening that remanded her in three-day police custody. Krishan would be produced in a court in the morning.  The SP said, “We have preserved the DNA sample taken from the body found in the gaushala room and it will now be matched with the DNA of Simran’s parents, who had lodged a missing person’s complaint on Tuesday.”

Simran’s father Alok Dubey of Azaad Nagar said, “My daughter went missing on Tuesday. We lodged a complaint with the police the same day… The police have now asked me to get a DNA test conducted on me and my wife. We will go for the test tomorrow.”