Punjab probes three-month-old MMS link to double murder

A 17-yr-old had been stripped; mother,sister of a girl who filmed her now killed.

A double murder on Thursday is now suspected to be linked to a three-month-old incident in which a group of girls,aged between 17 and 21,had allegedly stripped one of their friends outside a Panchkula hotel,filmed a five-minute MMS of hers and had circulated it.

On September 26,a group of four girls allegedly pushed one of their friends a 17-year-old girl inside a car,snatched her mobile and wallet,abused her,stripped her and then shot an MMS of hers in a semi-naked condition. They then circulated the MMS among many of their friends and acquaintances.

Then,Haryana police did not register any case as the victim,a resident of Sector 15,Panchkula,did not lodge any complaint.

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On Thursday,the mother and younger sister of one of the girls involved in filming the MMS were found murdered in Baltana in Mohali district. (Haryanas Panchkula and Punjabs Mohali are adjoining districts.) The Punjab Police have now begun a probe into what is suspected to be a case of revenge killings with a direct link to the MMS incident.

The two women found murdered have been identified as Shikha Jindal (45) and her 16-year-old daughter Priyanka,a student of Class X. While Priyankas body bore strangulation marks on her neck,Shikha was stabbed to death. Shikhas elder daughter,Anchal was one of the girls who allegedly stripped and filmed their friend with a mobile phone camera and had later circulated the MMS among the victims friends.

We are investigating (it) and we suspect that there is a link between the MMS clipping and the double murder, said DSP,Dera Bassi,Anil Kumar. Anchal,too,had a narrow escape when she was attacked on October 7,by two unidentified youths in Zirakpur with a sharp weapon after she parked her two-wheeler in a market and had gone to recharge her mobile phone. Anchal was injured in the attack and remained admitted in the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER),Chandigarh for almost a week. Anchals family also refused to register any complaint about the attack with the Mohali police.

There is definitely a connection between all the three incidents and we are working on various leads, said a police officer in Mohali. We have also questioned a close friend of the girl whose MMS was made.

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Anchal was in Ludhiana when the double murder took place. When she came back yesterday,she said that she suspected her father,Pradeep Jindal,and a boy from Manimajara, police said. Pradeep surrendered before the police,and we are looking for the boy named in the complaint. Anchals father had left the family after a dispute with his wife a few months ago.

While Punjab police are trying connect the dots between the MMS and the double murder,police in Haryana said that unless a complaint was made about the making of MMS,they would not probe the matter. If any complaint is made even now,we will investigate the matter, Deputy Commissioner of Police,Panchkula,Maneesh Chaudhary said.