Surat accused raped, killed victim’s widowed mom too

Our Correspondent

Ahmedabad, April 21

Harsasai Gurjar, accused of raping and killing an 11-year-old girl, was brought here from Rajasthan on Saturday morning and handed over to the Surat police. The Ahmedabad crime branch claimed the accused had also confessed to the rape and murder of the girl’s widowed mother.

Gurjar, a father of two, brought the mother and daughter to Surat about a month ago to work at his construction site. He lodged the two in a rented room in a locality nearby where he repeatedly raped the mother and strangled her in a fit of rage. He then took the girl, a witness to the crime, to his home and kept her in confinement even as the body of her mother lay in the rented room. The girl was thrashed, repeatedly gangraped and strangled to death. The bodies of the two victims were found in Pandesara area on April 6.

JK Bhatt, Joint Police Commissioner, Ahmedabad, said Gurjar did not have a criminal record but was seen as a village strongman. On whether the mother and daughter were “purchased for Rs 35,000,” as reported in a section of the media, he said the police were yet to verify the information. The Surat police have detained three more persons, including his Gurjar’s brother, for questioning.