A Class 12 student, who was the main suspect in the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Dalit girl in Haryana, was found dead late Tuesday night, officials said.

Police said the naked body of the boy, who is believed to be a minor, was found in a canal near Kirmach village of Kurukshetra district, four days after the mutilated body of the girl was found in adjoining Jind.

The incident has triggered nationwide outrage, putting the spotlight back on crimes against women in India, which brought in stringent laws after the deadly gangrape of a paramedical student in Delhi in December 2013. But that has failed to stem the wave of violence.

The boy’s body was found in Bakhra Nahar, around 25km from his native village of Jhansa, in a decomposed state, Kurukshetra station house officer Dileep Singh said, adding no external injuries were visible.

The police suspect that both of them were killed by unknown persons and have not ruled out possibility of honour killing. The girl’s family, also from Jhansa, has dismissed reports that the two were in a relationship.

“I want police to catch the real culprits. Even if the boy was involved, the brutality could not have been the work of an individual,” the girl’s mother said.

The boy’s family members have been picked up for questioning in connection with the case.

The police had earlier claimed that the girl, a Class 10 student who her parents say wanted to be a doctor, and the suspect were seen together on the evening of January 9, the day both of them went missing.

The girl’s body was found last week in Budhakhera village, about 110km from her native village.

Her family learnt of her death on Saturday afternoon. The father was at the police station when a relative called and said TV channels were flashing news about a girl’s body being found.

A doctor at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak who carried out the autopsy says more than two persons sexually assaulted her and used a blunt weapon that ruptured her liver. There were 19 external wounds and her hair was chopped before she was killed, the report says.

Jhansa village chief Puneet Mal said the boy’s body was found without clothes below the waist. He said CCTV footage showed the boy with two male friends on a motorcycle at 4.20pm on the day he disappeared. The girl was nowhere in the frame, he claimed.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/main-suspect-in-kurukshetra-girl-s-rape-and-murder-found-dead/story-2kBLIbdsqtrnjBZi1wbWhK.html