The body of a 22-year-old woman who had been missing since Saturday was found buried near a religious ashram at a village in Himachal’s Una district Wednesday. The body was exhumed following the arrest and confession of her killer, police said.
The arrest led to a tense situation in the village as irate residents stormed the ashram complex, located near the woman’s home, demanding a confrontation with the accused.
According to Una Superintendent of Police Arjit Sent, the incident took place in a village under Gagret sub-division, from where the woman had gone missing from her home on April 3. Her family reported the matter at the local police station the next day. Officials said police zeroed in on a 23-year-old man working at an ashram near her home using the call detail records of the victim.
Upon interrogation, the man confessed to having killed the woman on Saturday by hitting her with an iron rod, and also identified the spot in a field adjoining the ashram where he had buried her body. Police exhumed the body and transferred it to the Tanda medical hospital for an autopsy.
Meanwhile, residents of the village gathered at the spot, outnumbering the police, and stormed into the ashram. The situation was later diffused as senior police officials reached the spot.
Police said that the head priest of the ashram was away when the incident occurred. The accused, a native of Gyanpur in Uttar Pradesh, worked at the ashram and knew the woman but the motive behind the murder was not immediately clear, officials said. The woman was an M.Com student and had recently gotten engaged.
Read More: Himachal Pradesh: Body of 22-yr-old woman who had been missing for three days
