An 18-year-old student who had come to Mumbai from Akola to study at a polytechnic college was found dead in her hostel room at the Savitri Devi Phule Mahila Chhatralaya at Marine Drive on Tuesday evening.
According to the police, the 30-year-old watchman of the hostel allegedly raped and strangulated the girl to death in her hostel room on Monday night before he died by suicide by jumping in front of a running train hours later.
Girl found dead in hostel room
Police say the girl was last seen by her hostel mates at 11.30 pm on Monday night, and the following morning the door of her room on the hostel’s fourth floor was found locked. However, there was no entry of her leaving the hostel in the register nor was she answering any calls which is when the hostel authorities called the police and they entered the room.
“She was found lying unclothed on the floor except for a dupatta tied around her neck,” said Abhinav Deshmukh, additional commissioner of police, South Region.
The officials suspect that the girl, found naked in her room, had been sexually assaulted before she was killed. Within an hour of her body being discovered, the hostel watchman, Prakash Kanojia,33, was found to be absconding and shortly afterwards it was discovered that he had jumped before an oncoming train between Charni Road and Marine Lines stations and was killed instantly. Other girls who were staying in the hostel revealed that Kanojia would often harass her.
The Marine Drive police have registered a rape and murder case against Kanojia, and are awaiting both his and the girl's post-mortem reports. The Churchgate Railway Police in the meanwhile has registered an accidental death report (ADR) in connection with Kanojia’s death.
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