Ex-boyfriend murdered Yamunanagar teen after she turned down marriage offer: Police

Two days after the body of a 19-year-old missing girl was recovered in Yamunanagar, police on Tuesday arrested her former boyfriend, aged 20, on murder charges.

The accused, Gaurav, an employee of a local restaurant, wanted to marry the girl and killed her after she turned him down, revealed deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) Kawaljeet Singh. A police spokesperson said the case was solved within 36 hours and the accused will be presented before a court on Wednesday.

The body was discovered on Sunday, a week after the girl went missing, after locals complained of foul smell emanating from an empty plot. The body was in a badly decomposed state and beyond recognition, but an ID card in her purse had helped clear the doubts, police said.

‘Accused joined family in search to mislead cops’

Investigators said after the girl went missing, the accused also started searching for her along with the family and went through around a dozen closed-circuit television cameras to win over the confidence of the family and mislead the police.

The DSP said the family had filed a missing report on April 18 and also alleged the involvement of four men, who were also questioned, but nothing conclusive came out of it.

“After the recovery of the body, several teams were constituted to trace the accused in this blind murder case. They have now arrested Gaurav near Tejali Stadium, against whom the family had earlier registered a harassment case in 2020. He wanted to marry the girl, but she was never ready to do so,” he told the reporters.

The DSP said the man was familiar with her working hours at the saloon and was already there on April 17.

“When the girl left the saloon after work, he accosted her and took her to the empty plot on the pretext of having a conversation. He again brought up marriage but the girl flatly refused, following which he hit her with a brick, leaving her unconscious. To be sure that she is dead, he strangled her with a piece of cotton cloth (gamcha) and left,” he added.

‘Was waiting for first salary’: Kin of girl

Having dreamt of becoming a beautician right from her school days, the 19-year-old had been over the moon when she landed a job at a local saloon.

She had joined the saloon on April 15 “to live her dream” but just three days later, she went missing. The spot where her body was eventually recovered was just a kilometre away from her workplace.

“She had been so excited to join the saloon as was living her dream. She was eagerly waiting for her first salary of ₹8,000. The eldest of three sisters, she wanted to earn for her family,” one of the girl’s relatives said.

The deceased’s mother said that her daughter was good in studies and was waiting for her board results expected in May.

“She was also planning to study abroad and had applied for a passport two weeks ago,” the grieving mother told the reporters outside the mortuary of Mukund Lal Civil Hospital on Monday.

Due to the condition of the body, an autopsy was conducted at Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College in Karnal.

Inspector Kewal Singh, in-charge, CIA-1 said initial revelations of the autopsy pointed to blunt head injury on the left that led to haemorrhage and strangulation marks on the neck.

“Though, a final report is awaited, the revelations matched with the disclosure of the accused,” he added.