Woman gang-raped in Reasi; police suspects she committed suicide

Woman gang-raped in Reasi; police suspects she committed suicide

A 19-year-old woman was allegedly abducted and raped by two men, following which it is suspected that she committed suicide by jumping into the Chenab river in Reasi district, a police official said today.  

The woman's father had lodged a missing complaint for his daughter on July 24, he said.

After analysing the woman's call details, Paramjeet Singh was arrested, the officer said, adding that Singh revealed during interrogation that his friend, Pankaj Khajuria, was using a phone number on his name to entice her. 

An FIR was registered after the woman's relatives complained that she was abducted by Khajuria, his friend Naresh Kumar and Singh.

Subsequently, Khajuria was arrested from his shop in Zero Morh locality of Talwara, and Kumar, who had fled to Punjab's Amritsar, was held by a special police team there.

"During their interrogation, it came to the fore that Khajuria was in a relationship with the women and used to call her using Singh's SIM card and also promised to marry her," he said. 

Khajuria called her at Baradari Bridge from where he and his friend Kumar abducted her, took her to a secluded under-construction house in Talwara and raped her, the officer said. 

He said the investigation revealed that the woman soon after went to the Chenab bridge and called up Khajuria several times and threatened to commit suicide by jumping into the river. 

A mobile phone confiscated from Khajuria had "a vital clue in the shape of an audio recording, which brought to light the gory details of the case," the officer said.

The audio recording was purportedly the conversation the woman had with Khajuria over phone from the bridge.

"The last location of the woman was traced to the said bridge after which she went missing," he said, adding massive efforts are on to trace her. 

The officer said RPC sections related to gang-rape and abetment to suicide was added to the FIR. 

Although the abetment to suicide section has been added to the FIR, since the woman's body has not been recovered yet, she is still being being considered missing, the officer said.

The relatives of the woman staged a protest at Talwara demanding severe punishments to the culprits today.