Rape-Murder in south Mumbai hostel: Case of one-sided affair gone wrong, says police

While the investigators have learnt that the hostel authorities had not followed due procedure before recruiting him, the officials claim that they are still verifying.

Police outside the hostel on Wednesday. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

4 min readMumbaiJun 19, 2023 01:18 PM IST First published on: Jun 9, 2023 at 12:59 AM IST

Days after an 18-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered inside her hostel room by a watchman, the Marine Drive police claims that the incident is an outcome of a “one-sided love affair”. The police officials also said they have received the post-mortem report on Thursday and the doctors have not made any specific comment about the sexual assault as they did not find any fresh injury in her private parts.

The police said that the accused, Om Prakash Kanojia, who was doing the duty of a security guard as well as a laundry man at the girls hostel in South Mumbai, allegedly raped and strangulated the girl to death in her room in the wee hours of Tuesday before he died by suicide by jumping in front of a running train within an hour.

An IPS officer overlooking the probe said, “Through the statements of the friends and family members, we have come to know that the accused was very keen on holding some kind of a conversation or getting close to the girl due to which we can safely conclude that it is a matter of one-sided love affair going wrong.” The police further said that the girls at the hostel have revealed that the accused would get over-friendly with them as well. The investigators believe that on the day of the incident, Kanojia climbed through the pipe to go to the fourth floor, where the victim was staying.

“The entry gates to the hostel are closed at nights, and we found his slippers near a pipe installed in the building due to which we strongly suspect that the accused used the pipe to go to the fourth floor,” said an officer. Another police officer said they have received the post-mortem report from the doctors and it says that there are no fresh injuries in her private parts. ”

As per the report, there are no injuries in her private parts and the doctors have made no specific comment about sexual assault due to which we cannot reach any conclusion as her vagina swab report is yet to come,” said an officer.

While the investigators have learnt that the hostel authorities had not followed due procedure before recruiting him, the officials claim that they are still verifying. “There are three security guards appointed through the government tender, and besides Kanojia there are already three persons working as guards. However, as the hostel authorities required an additional security guard at night, they hired Kanojia on their own and they would pay him from their own funds,” said a senior police officer.

Demand for CBI probe

The father on the other hand is demanding a CBI probe into the case. “I want justice for my daughter’s death. We are not satisfied with the police investigation. They showed us the backside photo of a male body and claimed that it is of Kanojia. How can someone see the backside of a person and accept that the person whose body is lying on the railway track is of Kanojia?”

“Thousands of people die on the railway track. We want the CBI to investigate the matter so that the issue can reach a logical conclusion,” he said, adding that police have also failed to take action against the warden to whom my daughter had repeatedly complained about Kanojia.

The family and friends of the victim had gathered outside Marine Drive police station and protested at around 2pm on Thursday. The same evening, they took custody of the girl’s remains and conducted her final rites at Chaitya Bhoomi in Dadar.