Gujarat cops extend probe to other states to identify victim

AHMEDABAD : Gujarat police on Monday reached out its counterparts in Odisha for help in establishing the identity of a minor girl who was raped and murdered earlier this month.

The body of the girl, believed to be between nine and 11 years old, was found in a field at Pandesara in Surat city limits on April 6.

Gujarat minister of state for home Pradipsinh Jadeja on Monday confirmed reports that the victim’s body had 86 injury marks, including those on her private parts.

“She was strangled to death. The post-mortem indicated that the girl was tortured and raped for at least eight days,” Jadeja told reporters in Gandhinagar.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that the minor may be from Gujarat. Surat police commissioner Satish Sharma said, “The area where the body was recovered is an industrial belt and has many migrants from Odisha. That is the reason we contacted Odisha police. We are also contacting other states.”

Minister Jadeja said Odisha police were asked to go though complaints related to missing children filed before April 6. He added that Gujarat police had so far gone through 8,000 complaints related to missing children from Gujarat and other states.

The Surat crime branch has taken over the investigation. On Sunday, Surat residents took out a candle march demanding justice for the girl.

Tushar Ghelani, a Surat-based businessman, announced a cash reward to the tune of ₹5 lakh for providing information related to her identity. Police too announced a reward of ₹20,000 for information that would help identify her.

Meanwhile, Surat’s Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) president Bhusan Wankhede lodged a complaint with the city police against a social media post that claimed Haresh Thakur, a member of the student organisation, was the culprit. “There is nobody named Haresh Thakur in the ABVP. The social media post was created to defame the ABVP and misguide people,” said Wankhede.

MINOR RAPED IN RAJKOT

Gujarat police arrested a resident of Rajkot, on Monday for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl thrice.

The girl’s mother lodged a complaint on Sunday. She alleged that Bharwad made her daughter watch porn before raping her.