Runaway couple killed by man who offered them shelter in Gujarat’s Kheda, woman raped before murder: Police

Ninama was arrested on Thursday, 30 hours after the police discovered the bodies of the two victims in the field in a village in Mahuda taluka.

The man’s head had allegedly been crushed in his sleep while the woman was found with injuries of sexual assault along with head wounds that led to her death, said police.

Kheda District Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajesh Ghadiya told The Indian Express, “The couple had eloped from their respective villages as their families had not consented to their relationship. They took the step a day before the wedding of the woman with another man from her village. They (the victims) arrived in Kheda on Wednesday and were sitting by a lake in Dakor where they met the accused, who won their trust after he began to talk with the 24-year-old man.”

Ghadiya said that the couple confided in Ninama with their story, sharing that they were looking for a place to stay the night. “He took them to a field in a village in the district. He had lived in the village before and was thus acquainted with the place. After waiting for a couple of hours for the farm labourers to leave in the evening, he put the couple up in a farm… He lay in wait for the couple to go to bed (the farmers usually keep a couple of cots there) in the open farm and then attacked them in their sleep…”

According to the police, Ninama first allegedly killed the man using a wooden stick to inflict head injuries and then also injured the woman, leaving her incapable of fighting back. Ninama then allegedly raped the woman and murdered her. Ghadiya said medical examination has indicated internal injuries inflicted on the woman following the sexual assault.

“We have begun interrogating the accused to ascertain what weapons were used to cause the injuries and the death. So far, he has maintained that he used wooden sticks… There are several other grounds for seeking remand as we need to piece together the man’s movement after the crime. We have also come across CCTV footage of the man with the couple, where he is seen trying to cover the CCTV… There would be no need to do that if he did not intend to commit the crime while offering to help them,” said the SP.

Ghadiya said that so far, the police have not come across any criminal history associated with the accused, but have learnt about “marital discord, owing to his perverted nature”. He said, “We will conduct a reconstruction of the crime. The medical examination and collection of evidence will also need a couple of days. Accordingly, we had sought a remand of 10 days but the court has granted eight days in police custody.”

The FIR against Ninama under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Sections for rape and murder has been lodged based on the complaint of the owner of the farm, where the two victims were murdered.