Ludhiana: Police suspect rape in 18-yr-old girl’s murder

Police register FIR on complaint by minor girl’s mother 5 months after rape, 7 booked, 1 arrested

The bosy of an 18-year old girl was found near Barewal Bridge Thursday. The body had deep head injuries and the legs were tied with a piece of cloth. The police and doctors suspect the victim was raped and swab samples were sent for testing after the post-mortem examination.

The victim’s mother said, “On Wednesday morning, her father had dropped her to school. When she did not return even after 2.30 pm, I checked with neighbours and her friend’s residences but she was not there. A nearby store owner told me that she had visited. I went to her school again and requested that the premises be checked. We then lodged a missing complaint,” she said.

Around 3.30 am Thursday, the school bag and ID card of the victim were recovered near Jawaddi and the family were informed that the body of a girl had been found. The post-mortem report says she was strangled to death. She was assaulted on the head, it says.

“She was probably raped before being killed. Her legs were tied and there are signs that she struggled a lot,” said Ramandeep Singh, assistant commissioner of police, Atam Nagar.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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