Gujarat cops extend probe to Odisha, other states to identify Surat rape victim

Gujarat police have reached out to Odisha counterparts to establish the identity of a minor girl who was raped and murdered in Surat.

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 Pradeepsinh Jadeja on Monday confirmed reports that her body had 86 injury marks, including 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 might 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 contacted to go though the complaints related to missing children reported 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 investigation of the case from Pandesara police station.

On Sunday night, Surat residents took out candle march demanding justice for the girl. Tushar Ghelani, a Surat-based businessman, announced a cash reward to the tune of Rs 5 lakh for providing information related to her identity. Police too announced a reward of Rs 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, raped and murdered the girl.

“There is nobody named Haresh Thakur in the ABVP. The social media post was created to defame the ABVP and misguide people,” said Wankhede.

Man rapes minor girl in Rajkot

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

The girl’s mother had lodged a complaint with the police on Sunday.

She alleged that Bharwad made her daughter watch porn clips on his mobile phone before raping her. The accused knew the victim and her widowed mother, said police.