‘Dead’ woman returns home in Patiala after family performs last rites

A murder mystery turned murkier on Thursday as the woman believed to have been killed returned home, four days after her family members had performed her ‘last rites’. While the family breathed a sigh of relief, the fresh development in the case has left the cops clueless about the identification of the dead woman and her murderers.

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On December 12, the body of an unidentified woman was found on the Patiala-Sangrur southern bypass in the city. Two days later, a Patiala-based family identified the body as of their daughter, Naina Rani, who is married in a village of Chamkaur Sahib subdivision in Rupnagar district.

The family had claimed that Naina had eloped with her paramour, who is a truck driver and he could have killed her as he was also missing from his house. However, the police theory came crashing, when Naina returned home along with her paramour with whom she had disappeared. The cops have not been able to identify the body yet, which has been cremated by the family members of Naina.

The body was found in a gunny bag in one of the fields of a local farmer, Jivan Singh, who was taking round on his property. He had then informed the local police. A team from Sardar police station went to the spot and shifted the body to the mortuary of the Government Rajindra Hospital and a team of forensic experts also visited to spot to look for any kind of evidence.

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The police said that the victim was strangulated as there were marks on her neck. She was also attacked with sharp-edged weapons. “It appears that the crime was committed at some other place and the body was dumped here around two days ago,” the cops said. The police have not recovered any identity proof or mobile phone of the victim. They have circulated the dead body’s photograph with details of identification marks to all police stations in the state so that she can be identified.

Further, a case has been registered against ‘unidentified persons’ under Section 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).