Honour killing? Nine days on, mystery shrouds girl’s death

TARNTARAN:The mystery behind a 17-year-old girl’s body found in a village pond persists as the Tarn Taran police have failed to crack the case even after nine days, citing an awaited autopsy report. The body was found floating in the pond of Veeram village in Bhikhiwind sub-division, 30 km from the district headquarters, on August 3, two days after her father reportedly found her in an “objectionable position” with a-23-year-old man and filed an FIR against him.

“We had sent the body for postmortem examination to Government Medical College, Amritsar, the report of which is still awaited for further action,” said deputy superintendent of police (DSP) SS Mann on Saturday. “The report will come soon.”

However, civil surgeon Dr Samsher Singh said post-mortem report comes in three to four days. “If viscera samples need to be examined further, it will take around two months,” he added. About the technicality, the DSP said, “We sent everything.”

Meanwhile, acting on a complaint by the father that she was missing, police registered a case under sections 452 (trespass for assault or wrongful restraint), 363 (kidnapping) and 366A (inducing a minor girl for illicit intercourse), read with 511 (attempting to commit offences), of the Indian Penal Code against the man, Gursahib Singh, on August 3, only after the body was found.

Police had then said, “The girl’s father complained that during midnight on August 1, Gursahib came into his house when the family was sleeping. After hearing some noise, he woke up and found his daughter in an objectionable condition with Gursahib in the house.”

“He took a sharp-edged weapon and started thrashing the man,” police had said, adding that the man managed to escape from there with injuries. “The father further said that the girl followed Gursahib, who was accompanied by two other unidentified men, and was missing,” police had told the media.

The father had formally lodged the complaint about her going missing on August, but the police registered a case after her body was found on August 3. No new charges have as yet been added to the case against Gursahib, who is in police custody, nor has any new FIR been registered. Only inquest proceedings have been initiated with regard to the death.