Amritsar woman was burnt alive, daughter stifled

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 19

The post-mortem reports of the two victims of the February 6 double murder case revealed that the woman was burnt alive while her daughter had died of asphyxia.

Gagan Verma and her daughter Shivnaini were found murdered at their residence in Darshan Avenue on February 6. While the body of Gagan was badly charred, her daughter’s body had burn injuries. Her hands were tied and she was half naked when the police reached the spot. The matter came to light after a neighbour called the fire brigade.

Vavinder Mahajan, in charge, Cyber Cell, who was heading one of the teams investigating the case, confirmed that Gagan was burnt alive by the accused.

“After making her semi-conscious by using chloroform, prime accused Pankaj Sharma had tried to rape Gagan Verma. However, as she fell unconscious after some time, they thought she had died,” Mahajan said.

Now fearing that they would be exposed, they went to the room of Shivnaini and killed her by covering her face with chloroform-laced cloth. She died of asphyxia, he said.

After committing the crime they had set the house on fire.

The police had arrested Pankaj Sharma and his friend Neeraj Kumar, both residents of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar in Chheharta. Pankaj is a friend of deceased Gagan Verma’s son Ridham Verma. He was a frequent visitor to the house.