Kin held for Kangra girl’s ‘rape’, murder

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, February 11

With the arrest of Sarandas (36), a relative of the deceased, in the wee hours today, the police claim to have solved the rape and murder case of a 20-year-old girl of Panihar village in Kangra district.

While the Opposition was silent on the issue, the ABVP carried out a protest in Dharamsala. The student wing of the BJP seemed to have gone in an overdrive mode by pre-empting the Congress protest, embarrassing its own government.

Residents of Panihar blocked traffic on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway for about one hour, alleging the involvement of more persons in the crime.

They lifted their dharna only after the SP, Kangra, Santosh Patial visited the spot and assured them that the accused had been arrested and the police were not shielding anybody.

The SP also appealed to people to stay calm.

The body of the murdered girl was found in the partially naked condition in the forest area near Kotla on Saturday. Police investigations revealed that the murder was committed by her relative Sarandas, a married man and father of three children with whom she allegedly had illicit relations.

The SP said, “The accused had relations with the victim for the past three years. As he was married, he wanted to get rid of the victim and, therefore, killed her,” he said.

The police arrested the man from his native place Padhar. “The accused has confessed that he had relations with the girl and killed her,” said Patial.

Giving details about the evidence, he said when the police recovered the body from forest area, it presumed to be a murder case.

However, when the call details of the girl were traced, it was found that the victim and the accused were in constant touch. “They had called each other at least 30 times in an hour and the last location of the victim and the accused was the same,” added Patial.

The SP said the girl had left her home on February 3 for her sister’s place at Padhar village, which happens to be the village of the accused too.

“The victim stayed there and started early for her place on February 5. She and the accused met on the way and both went to a forest area on a bike around 7.30 am, where he physically exploited the victim before strangulating her to death,” said the SP. The accused is a mason.

The family of the victim had filed a missing person report with the police on February 6.

The family gave wrong mobile number of the girl to the police. It was on February 9 that the actual mobile number of the girl was given to the police following which they managed to trace the calls of the deceased.

The body of the girl was then recovered from the forest the next day, the SP said.

“The girl was a student of a local skill development centre and was under training. The police have registered a case under Section 302 of the IPC. However, rape will be established after the post-mortem report is received and relevant sections be added in the FIR,” said added the SP.