Patiala SSP Varun Sharma addresses a press conference in Patiala on Thursday. Rajesh Sachar
Patiala, March 23
The district police today claimed to have solved the murder of a 60-year-old woman, whose body was found near the Shambhu railway station, with the arrest of a 22-year-old man from Mehmudpur village. The police claimed the suspect had tried to molest the victim and later strangulated her.
SSP Varun Sharma said the police had received information that the body of a woman, later identified as Joginder Kaur, was found hanging from a tree near the railway station on March 16. The postmortem later confirmed murder.
A case under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC was registered and a team formed to probe the matter.
The SSP said Gurnam Singh had lodged a complaint with the police, stating that his mother, Joginder Kaur, had not returned home from work on March 15. He said her body was later found.
Sharma said, “During the investigation it was revealed that Gurdyal Singh, a resident of Shambhu, had tried to force himself onto the woman while she was on her way home. The victim resisted and fought the suspect. He then strangulated her.”
The police claimed the suspect allegedly hung the body from the tree to pass it off as suicide.