E-Paper
14 years after MBA student’s rape & murder in Chandigarh, charges framed against accused
The accused, Monu Kumar, is a resident of Shahpur Colony in Sector 38 West, Chandigarh, and is a father of two daughters but had separated from them and his wife since 2011
Fourteen years after an MBA student was raped and murdered in Sector 38 West, a local court on Wednesday framed charges against the accused, setting the stage for trial to begin.
The court of additional sessions judge Yashika has set the next day of hearing for September 11 when the trial will begin, and the prosecution will examine its witnesses.
The charges have been framed under Section 376 (rape) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code against accused Monu Kumar, who has pleaded not guilty.
Police had filed the chargesheet on August 2.
The MBA student’s body was found just a few miles away from her residence in Sector 38 West, in July 2010. The accused has allegedly confessed to the crime during police questioning and revealed that he had encountered the MBA student while she was talking on her phone near the secluded Karan Taxi Stand in Sector 38 West residential area. He had attacked her from the back with a heavy stone, leaving her half dead. He then dragged her into the bushes where he sexually assaulted her. As per the chargesheet, Kumar took one of her two phones, sold it in the Industrial Area and discarded the other phone in a jungle. He also signed a receipt using a false address.
He struck again in 2022, this time killing a 40-year-old woman in Maloya in a similar fashion. While police had initially reached a dead end in the 2010 rape-murder case and even filed an untraced report in the court in February 2020, the 2022 case gave them a fresh lead due to its uncannily resemblance to the MBA student’s rape and murder.
The Central Forensic Science Laboratory team had preserved semen samples collected from the bodies of both victims, which eventually helped confirm that both were murdered by the same man.
As per the disclosure report, Kumar was heavily intoxicated when he attacked both women, who were alone near forest areas in the rainy weather.
A resident of Shahpur Colony in Sector 38 West, Kumar is a father of two daughters but had separated from them and his wife since 2011, according to police. He hails from Uttar Pradesh and is currently lodged in Model Jail, Chandigarh.
