New Delhi: A security guard of a girl's hostel in south Mumbai allegedly raped and strangulated an 18-year-old college student to death. Hours later, the accused was found dead on railway tracks near the hostel, police said on Wednesday.
According to the police, the cops were alerted at around 5 pm on Tuesday after the woman became untraceable, with her fourth-floor hostel room in the Charni Road area locked from the outside, reported PTI.
As soon as the police team entered the hostel room, they found the girl strangulated to death with a piece of cloth, an official said.
The victim was a student of a government polytechnic college in suburban Bandra, he said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, terming the incident "unfortunate" said, "Police probing the incident and action will be taken against those who're found guilty."
"This is a very alarming matter, both Central and state govt are not serious about women's safety & it’s a failure from their side. Security arrangements must be made in the hostels. Govt must install CCTV cameras and alarm bells inside the hostel and helpline numbers also should be set up," said Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule.
After reaching the spot, the police along with a team of forensic and fingerprint experts started a probe into the incident.
According to the police official, during the investigation, it came to light that the hostel's security guard, who was a suspect in the case, was found dead on the railway tracks near Charni Road station on Tuesday morning.
The Marine Drive police said that the incident seemed to have taken place between 11.30 pm on Monday and 4 am on Tuesday as the accused identified as Om Prakash Kanojia died by jumping in front of a running train around 4.50 am, according to an Indian Express report.
An officer said, “The girl last spoke to her friend in the hostel around 11.30 pm on Monday after which she went to sleep. Since she was nowhere to be seen throughout the day, hostel staff and other girls started looking for her in the afternoon.”
The staffers went to her room on the fourth floor when they found that it was locked from outside. “They then checked the main gate entry diary, in which the girls have to mention the time before entering and exiting the premises. That is when they came to know that the girl had not gone anywhere,” said an investigator.
“The staff then looked in through the window when they saw her naked body lying on the floor,” the investigator said, Indian Express reported.
Based on a complaint by the student's cousin and circumstantial evidence, an FIR was registered against the security guard under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape), the official said.
A probe was on into the case, he said, adding the post-mortem report was awaited