Jind rape-murder: Suspect’s autopsy hints at suicide

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, January 18

The Haryana Police today said the body of 18-year-old Gulshan, prime suspect in the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Dalit girl in Kurukshetra district, showed no sign of external or internal injuries.

SP Abhishek Garg told The Tribune today that the post-mortem performed by a board of doctors at BPS Government College in Khanpur village found water in Gulshan’s stomach, indicating that he might have drowned.

“The absence of any injury mark further indicates that the deceased was neither forcibly thrown into the canal nor did he face any physical resistance before death. The report hints that it may be a suicide case. But as per the protocol of criminal investigation, the viscera will be sent for chemical analysis to ascertain the exact cause of death before concluding anything,” he said.

Garg said nobody had been given a clean chit as the police were still investigating the case. “The allegation of possible sexual assault of the girl is also subject to further scientific evidence,” he said.

“According to a few residents of Gulshan’s native village Jhansa, the deceased and the girl were seen at Markanda bridge till around 4 pm on January 9. Gulshan’s body was fished out of Bhakra canal, whereas the girl’s body was found near the course of the same canal at Jind’s Budha Khera. Massive search is on along 90 km from Jhansa to Budha Khera,” he said.

Sources said it was still a mystery as to how the girl’s body reached Jind’s Budha Khera village. “The body was found on the embankment of a minor distributory of the Bhakra canal. No blood stain was found in the fields where the decomposed body was found on January 12. It also needs to be probed if the body swept in the canal or it was dumped in the fields,” said a senior police official requesting anonymity.