17-yr-old babysitter was raped before murder

Tribune News Service

 Mohali, November 15

 The 17-year-old girl, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a deserted area in Sector 69 on Tuesday evening, was raped before she was murdered, said doctors after conducting the autopsy at the Civil Hospital in Mohali. A three-member medical board of the hospital conducted the autopsy today.

 Dr Karamjit Singh, a forensic expert, said the victim’s body had nearly 10 stab wounds in the abdomen, stomach, back and on the side of the vagina.

“The mutilated body was rotting for six days and was maggot-infested. Dogs had eaten parts of the victim’s body,” he said, adding that the possibility of gang rape could not be ruled out.

“The victim’s vaginal swabs have been sent to forensic laboratories in Patiala and Kharar for examination,” he said.

Police officials had found the victim’s body in bushes in a deserted area in Sector 69 opposite Mayo Hospital on Tuesday. A senior police official said according to circumstantial evidence, the victim, who worked as a caretaker at a lawyer’s house in Sector 69, was murdered on November 9, the day she had gone missing. 

The police said the victim was seen leaving the area where she worked at 4.28 pm in a CCTV camera recording.

 Sources said the victim’s purse, which contained Rs 1,000, was missing. The victim’s father, Navrattan Singh, who hails from Badagaon village in Sambhal district of UP said the victim had been working as a babysitter at a lawyer’s house in Sector 69 for over two years.

“She did not use a mobile phone,” he said. The victim’s brother, Vishnu (19), said he used to drop his sister at the house around 9 am and in the evening, she used to return to their residence in Mataur at 4.30 pm on her own. “When she did not return on November 9, I called up the house owner. They said she had

 left the house around 4.15 pm,” he said. Vishnu claimed that he had gone to the Mataur police station on November 10 but was turned away by police officials. “The police told me that I am a minor and I should come with my parents to file a complaint,” he said.

The victim’s parents, who had gone to their native village in UP to attend to some urgent family matter, returned on November 11 and filed a complaint at the Phase 8 police station. The victim is survived by seven siblings — three sisters and four brothers — and her parents, who stay in a one-room accommodation at Mataur. The family had moved to Mataur from UP two years ago.