The police in Gujarat on Monday said the mother of the 11-year-old girl, who was found murdered after allegedly being raped in Surat, had also been killed by the same accused. Both the child and her mother were allegedly trafficked to the city by labour contractor Harsh Gurjjar, the Ahmedabad Police said, according to the Hindustan Times.
The child’s body was found on April 6 with 86 injuries. According to the autopsy, she had been raped and tortured over eight days before being strangled to death. A DNA test confirmed that the body of the woman found four days later was her mother’s, but the police suspect she was killed before her daughter on March 26, The Indian Express reported.
Harsh Gurjjar and two others were arrested in Rajasthan on April 20.
“The mother and daughter were sold multiple times before they came to Surat with Harsh Gurjjar...in October 2017,” the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch said. “The main accused Harsh had bought them from Kuldeep Gurjjar and Mukesh Gurjjar from Rajasthan for Rs 35,000.”
Harsh Gurjjar is believed to have been in a relationship with the mother and kept her and her daughter in an apartment in Surat’s Kamej area. The father of two lived with his family in Surat’s Pandesara locality. According to the police, he decided to kill the woman and her child after she started to push him to stay with her, according to The Indian Express.
The police have registered a case of human trafficking, rape and murder against Kuldeep Gurjjar and Mukesh Gurjjar, as well, and are looking for them.
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