Charni Road hostel rape: Foreign report links guard to rape

Mumbai: The forensic report links prime suspect Omprakash Kanojia, 33, to the rape and murder of the 18-year-old student in Savitribai Phule Ladies Hostel in Charni Road, police officials said on Saturday.

According to the police, they had taken samples from the victim’s and the suspect’s body as well as clothes and sent them for forensic analysis. The forensic report received on Saturday revealed that the foreign DNA found on the body and clothes of the victim matched with Kanojia, who died by suicide after committing the crime, a police officer said.

According to the police, investigations have revealed that the accused sexually assaulted the girl before strangling her with leggings.

“We have got the reports from Kalina Forensic Laboratory. They have come positive and this confirms that the security guard of the hostel, Kanojia, is the accused involved in the crime and this confirms our earlier investigation,” said a police officer from Marine Drive police station.

The forensic experts had collected nails and clothes from the 18-year-old body, the police officer said, adding, “After we came to know that Kanojia jumped in front of a train on the same day, the forensic experts collected samples from his bones.”

The 18-year-old victim was pursuing Diploma in Computer Engineering at the Government Polytechnic in Bandra and was residing in the hostel since April 2021. She was found dead in her room on the fourth floor of the state-run hostel on June 7.

Police officials said that the accused, who was working as a security guard at the hostel, was staying in a ground-floor room at the backside of the hostel building and did not have direct access to the premises.

He, however, had access to the duct area from his room and that was from where he climbed up to the first floor, using the sewage pipeline, entered the building and went up to the fourth floor where the victim stayed alone in a room, said a police officer. He added that they have found his sleeper lying near the sewage pipe on the backside of the hostel building and that indicated that he went up by climbing the pipe.

The police officer said that the accused was seen in the hostel premises around 4:30am when he was walking restlessly and even once he tried to climb on a pipe attached to the hostel building. After a few minutes, Kanojia kept his mobile phone in the security cabin and left from the gate at 4:44am and died by suicide at 4:58am on railway tracks, the police officer added.