Surat rape & murder: Was the victim from Odisha?

Surat: At a time when the identity of the minor girl, who was brutally raped and murdered in Surat, is yet to be established, the Gujarat government suspects that the victim might be from Odisha.

Gujarat Home Minister PS Jadeja on Monday stated that "The identity of the victim minor girl is still not clear and she might be from Odisha. So far, police have not got any clues about her family. We have contacted the Odisha DGP in this connection.”

Jadeja further informed that already efforts are on to ascertain the identity of the minor girl and her picture is being checked against photos of 8,000 missing children.

Posters of the deceased girl have been printed and the CCTV footage from where the body of the minor was recovered on April 6 is also being examined.

From the post-mortem of the deceased, it has been ascertained that the victim girl is nearly 11 years old and she was held captive and raped before being killed.

As the body carries 86 injury marks, it is believed that the she was subjected to torture before she was strangulated to death, informed sources.

“We have received a communication yesterday evening from Gujarat police regarding the minor girl whose body was recovered from near a cricket field on April 6. As they suspect that the deceased girl might be from Odisha, they have asked us to cooperate in the investigation,” said Odisha DGP RP Sharma.

Sharma further said that all the district superintendents have been asked to examine the cases of missing children reported in their respective regions.