Surat/Bhubaneswar: Police stumbled upon initial leads in the minor girl rape and murder case in Surat after a couple from Andhra Pradesh claimed the victim to be their daughter who was missing since October last year.
Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma said, "We had adopted various measures to ascertain the identity of the girl, following which a couple from Andhra Pradesh claimed her to be their missing daughter."
The couple reached Surat on Tuesday and the person who claims to be the father of the victim identified her body. But he has to undergo DNA test to establish his relationship with the minor girl, added Sharma.
Earlier on April 6, body of the 11-year-old was found in a field, at Pandesara's Bhestan area in Surat of Gujarat, with 86 injury marks on her body. Post-mortem revealed the minor was strangulated to death before being raped for several days.
As Bhestan is an Odia population dominated region, Gujarat police suspected the girl to be a resident of Odisha and sought the cooperation of Odisha Police in the investigation.
Gujarat Home Minister PS Jadeja on Monday had informed that as an effort to ascertain the identity of the minor her picture was being checked against photos of 8,000 missing children. Her posters were printed and the CCTV footage of the area where her body was recovered is also being examined.