18-yr-old raped, murdered in Mumbai hostel room, accused security guard found dead

In a shocking incident, an 18-year-old college student was allegedly raped and murdered in her hostel room of a government-run facility in Mumbai's Marine Drive area.

Accused found dead

A security guard, who is an accused in the case, was found dead on railway tracks near the hostel, police said on Wednesday (June 7). The 30-year-old suspect, identified as Om Prakash Kanaujia, was absconding from the hostel premises and was later found dead, police said.

Kanaujia had been working as a guard for 15 years at Savitri Phule Women's Hostel. The FIR in connection with the case was registered under the jurisdiction of the Marine Drive police station.

What happened

The police were alerted at around 5 pm on Tuesday (June 6) after the woman became untraceable, with her fourth-floor hostel room locked from outside. A police team entered the hostel room found her strangulated to death with a piece of cloth.

The victim was the student of a government polytechnic college in suburban Bandra, an official told PTI.

A team was formed to nab the accused, however, around 5.30 pm on Tuesday, the suspect was found dead at a nearby railway station. It is said that Kanaujia went to Charni Road station and lay on tracks near platform number 1. He died after being run over by a train coming from Churchgate station, reported India Today.

Police probe

After reaching the spot, the police along with a team of forensic and fingerprint experts started a probe into the incident, and during the investigation, it was discovered that the hostel's security guard, who was the suspect, was found dead on the railway tracks.

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), an official said. He said that a post-mortem report was awaited.

Reminiscent of the Dhananjoy Chatterjee-Hetal Parekh case?

There are some uncanny parallels between the Mumbai rape and murder case and the Dhananjoy Chatterjee-Hetal Parekh case from 1990. However, here the accused has been found dead, while Dhananjoy was sentenced to death.

Kolkata was shocked when Hetal Parekh, a 18-year-old schoolgirl was found raped and murdered in her own house. A security guard of the society, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, was charged for the crimes of rape and murder of Parekh.

He became the first person to be judicially executed in India in the 21st century for murder. There were debates on whether he was actually the killer or if it was someone else, and many people protested against his death sentence.