15 years after Chandigarh MBA student’s rape and murder, taxi driver held guilty

Kumar, a drug addict, was arrested in 2024 in connection with the rape and murder of another woman in Maloya in 2022. During interrogation, the police claimed, he confessed that he had committed the rape and murder of another woman in 2010 in Sector 38, Chandigarh.

He had been facing trial under sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

After he was arrested in connection with the 2022 crime, the police said investigators zeroed in on the accused based on the Central Forensic Science Laboratory’s (CFSL) conclusion that both crimes were committed by the same person. The police said his samples matched those of the suspect.

Sources told The Indian Express at that time that the man told the police he was arrested for rape in Himachal Pradesh, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The Chandigarh police lodged a First Information Report (FIR) on July 31, 2010, based on the complaint of the woman’s father. The woman’s father told the police his daughter left their house on a scooter at about 6 pm on July 30, 2010, to attend the English-speaking classes.

When his daughter did not return by 9 pm, he called her friend to ask about her, but she said she had not met her. Another friend of the victim came to their house and told him that his daughter had met her around 7.30 pm and left at about 7.45 pm. Thereafter, they all searched for the victim but could not locate her.

After a while, the victim’s father received a call from her friend, saying his daughter’s scooter was parked near a taxi stand in Sector 38 West, with bloodstains. When they reached the taxi stand, they saw the half-naked body of the victim lying in a pool of blood in the bushes on the other side of the road,

She was rushed to PGI, where doctors declared her “brought dead”.