Spurned lover strangulates 19-yr-old girl to death

Shock and disbelief gripped the Valley after an alleged jilted lover brutally strangulated a 19-year-old girl to death for rejecting his marriage proposal in the border district of Kupwara.

Police have registered a case of murder and abduction under section 302 and 366 Ranbir Penal Code and arrested the main accused Altaf Ahmad Malik from his home in Kupwara district.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Kupwara, Shamsheer Hussain told DNA that they had received a report on Saturday afternoon that the girl of Gushi village has gone missing.

"We immediately swung into action and tracked her mobile phone. Her tower location was showing Kupwara. After analysing her call details, we came to know that she was in contact with Altaf Ahmad Malik of Handwara," he said.

On tracking the call and tower location details of the Altaf's mobile, it was found that the tower location of mobiles of both Altaf and the girl was near Kadihama.

"We immediately apprehended Altaf and put him to sustained questioning. During questioning he spilled the beans and admitted that he murdered the girl and threw her body in Kadihama jungles," he said.

During questioning, Altaf told police that he was in touch with the girl for the last one and half years. "He was pressing for the marriage. However she refused. On the fateful day he abducted her and took her to Kadihama forests where he strangulated her to death. Later he dumped the body in the jungle before fleeing from the scene," said an officer.

Police later took the accused to the jungle to identify the place where he had dumped the body. Later postmortem of body was conducted and her mortal remains was handed over to her family for the last rites

Police said the mobile phone proved crucial in helping the cops to crack the case in few hours time. Police is further analyzing the call details and phone directory of the accused and the deceased to dig further and unravel the truth. "Further investigation into the case is on," said an officer.