The murder of a 20-year-old girl from Modga, a village on the outskirts of Belgaum city that comes under the Marihal Police Station limits, sparked off angry protest on Saturday. Village residents staged a rasta roko demanding arrest of the culprits responsible for the murder in two days.
The police registered a case under sections 302, 376 and 511 of the IPC following a complaint lodged by the murdered girl’s father.
The accused are yet to be identified.
The police said that the girl’s body was found on a farmland on the Sulebhavi-Khangaon Road, away from the road, on Saturday morning. The body was shifted to the district hospital for post-mortem.
Senior police officers could not immediately confirm, but suspected rape of the victim in view of the nature of injuries on her body. The police said that the post-mortem report was awaited.
According to the police, the girl was second-year BA student. She had come to Belgaum to appear for her annual examination on Friday but had not returned home till late in the night. Her family tried to find her whereabouts from relatives and friends. In the meantime, information about a body being found on farmland away from the road, reached the village.
The angry village residents staged a protest and demanded that the culprits be arrested immediately. The police resorted to mild caning.
Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil, who visited the village, said that two teams had been set up to nab the accused.
Deputy Commissioner Munish Moudgil also rushed to the spot and assured the village residents that the persons responsible for the girl’s murder would be caught.
