Cabbie guilty of rape, murder of student

The Fast-Track Special Court here held a taxi driver guilty in a 15-year-old case of rape and murder of 21-year-old MBA student Neha Ahlawat. Before delivering the verdict, Dr Yashika, Judge, asked the accused what he would to say to God for perpetrating rape and murder of a 21-year-old girl.

The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on Friday. The court held him guilty in the case on the basis of the scientific evidence — DNA match.

The accused is also facing another murder and rape case. The court said, “Your DNA matched with the two victims. This is the most important proof against you to hold guilty.”

Soon after the Judge delivered the verdict, tears started rolling down the eyes of the victim’s parents.

The police had registered a case against an unidentified person after the blood stained body of a girl was found in the forest area of Sector 38 on July 30, 2010.

In a complaint lodged with the police, the girl’s father had stated that on July 30, 2010, Neha left home around 6 pm on a scooter for Sector 15 to attend spoken English classes. When she did not return home till 9 pm, he called her friends and enquired about his daughter. One of her friends visited his house and told that Neha met her around 7.30 pm and left around 7.45 pm. The family searched for her, but in vain.

In the meantime, he received a call from her friend that Neha’s scooter with blood stains was found parked near the taxi stand, Sector 38-West. The family reached the Karan Taxi Stand and found half-naked Neha in the bushes nearby. She was rushed to the PGI where a duty doctor declared her brought dead.

The police failed to find the culprit and closed the investigation in 2020. The case was solved when the accused was arrested in another case of murder and rape of Mandeep Kaur in 2022 in the same area. In this case also, the victim’s body was found in forest area.

During the investigation, the police took the DNA samples of suspects with criminal record. Accused Monu’s sample matched with the evidence collected from the Mandeep’s body.

The police claimed Monu also confessed to the rape and murder of Neha. His DNA sample also matched with the sample preserved by the police in the Neha case.

Sunil Kumar Pandey, counsel for the accused, said he was falsely implicated. However, the public prosecutor argued that the prosecution had proved the case beyond a shadow of doubt.