Rape accused in MP kills victim with help of contract killers, arrested

The accused, said to be former district president of a right-wing organisation, was arrested along with his five accomplices on Wednesday, said police.

A man allegedly killed the woman he had raped five years ago and the murder was staged to look like an accident in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain district, police said.

The woman “brought dead” by the doctors at the hospital but injury marks on her body raised suspicion. (Representational Photo)

The accused, said to be former district president of a right-wing organisation, was arrested along with his five accomplices on Wednesday, said police.

“The rape accused Sukhwinder Khanuja, 39, a resident of Ujjain, hired one Pankaj from Indore to kill the woman for ₹1 lakh. The latter along with his wife Uma, a magic van driver Wahid Khan, Sanjay and Sameer, all residents of Indore, executed the murder plan on November 15,” Ujjain’s superintendent of police (SP) Sachin Atulkar said.

Khanuja took the 30-year-old woman to the district hospital in Ujjain on November 15. He told the doctors on duty that the woman had been hit by a four-wheeler and injured badly.

He later disappeared from the hospital. The doctor declared the woman “brought dead” but injury marks on her body raised suspicion.

“Based on the evidence, police first arrested and interrogated Wahid Khan. The latter spilled the beans,” Atulkar said.

“Khanuja told the police that the woman had lodged a complaint against him with Ujjain police in 2014 accusing him of raping her. He was arrested and sent to jail. Later, the woman decided to resolve the issue,” Atulkar said.

“But when he came out of jail the woman started harassing him by forcing him to meet again and again. Hence, he decided to eliminate her,” the senior official said.

The accused have been arrested on charge murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the SP said.

(With input from Anand Nigam in Ujjain)