AURANGABAD: Sharan Singh Sethi (24), the accused in Friday’s brutal murder of BBA student Sukhpreet Kaur Granthi (19) in Aurangabad, was arrested by the Nashik rural police on Saturday morning from Lasalgaon on the Aurangabad-Mumbai highway.
The police had registered an FIR against Sethi for stalking and murdering the woman.
Nashik rural superintendent of police Sachin Patil told TOI, “We were alerted that the accused would possibly go to Lasalgaon to hide at arelative’s place. We arrested him soon after he got down from a goods transport truck in which he had taken a lift to reach Lasalgaon. ”
Stalker accused of student’s murder held
The Nashik rural police handed Sethi over to the Aurangabad city crime branch. Sources in the Nashik police said Sethi made a call to his sister residing in Lasalgaon, which helped the police get his exact location. The probe has revealed that after committing the murder, he fled on a motorcycle which he later dumped and took a lift inatruck heading to Mumbai.
Police sources said Sethi will be produced before the court on Monday. The last rites of the victim were performed on Saturday noon in Aurangabad. Sukhpreet Kaur alias Kashish was stabbed to death by Sethi on Saturday. She had rejected his proposal for a relationship. Sethi stabbed her with a ‘kirpan’ at least 17 times in the vicinity of Deogiri College, where she studied.
Sukhpreet Kaur alias Kashish was stabbed to death by the accused stalker in the heart of the city on Saturday.
The victim had rejected his proposal for a relationship and dejected over it, the accused stabbed Sukhpreet with a ‘kirpan’ (curved, single-edged knife) at least 17 times, including 14 times in her neck in the vicinity of Deogiri College in Rachnakar Colony on the railway station road, an officer said. She was a first-year bachelor of business administration (BBA) student of the college.
CCTV footage showed the man dragging the student along the road for nearly 200 feet before committing the crime, the officer said. An autopsy at the Government Medical College and Hospital revealed that she was stabbed 14 times in her neck and thrice in stomach. The police have launched a search for the assailant.
Based on a complaint lodged by the deceased’s elder brother, Harpreet (24), the Vedantnagar police registered an FIR against the man for stalking and murdering the student. Sukhpreet was the youngest daughter of a senior engineer employed with a bearings manufacturer.
The murder has evoked strong reactions from cross sections of the society. A candle light March demanding capital punishment to the accused, was organised on Sunday evening. Victim's father Preetpal Singh Granthi said, "My daughter was brutally murdered in broad daylight and nobody came to her rescue. I don't want this to happen with anyone else's daughter or sister."
His views were echoed by large number of girl students that joined the protest held in the city.
