Ludhiana: Missing 21-year-old woman’s body found in neighbour’s locked room in Azad Nagar

A 21-year-old woman who missing for the past three days was found dead on Saturday in a locked room in Azad Nagar, officials aware of the developments said.
They said the room’s occupant fled after locking the room on October 30.
The Model Town police took up an investigation into the suspected murder case, the officials added.
Police sent the body to the civil hospital for post-mortem.
According to police, no visible injury marks were found on the body and the reason behind her death will be ascertained after the postmortem.
The police said they suspected sexual assault on the woman.
Murder case registered against neighbour
A first-information report (FIR) was registered against the accused, identified as Vishwanath, alias Pandit.
The woman worked at a small unit of stickers and her mother works at a factory in Sahnewal. The 21-year-old’s father is physically challenged.
The woman’s father said he has been living in a rented accommodation in Azad Nagar with his four daughters and a son for the past five years.
The accused, Vishwanath, was living in another room as a tenant.
“Vishwanath used to tell us that he works for a transport company in Phagwara. On October 30, he took me towards Jalandhar Bypass, claiming he would help me in finding a job and asked me to wait near Salem Tabri and left. When he did not return for three hours, I returned home and found his room locked. I got a call from my daughter’s employer, who informed me that she had not come to work,”said the father.
“I suspected that the accused had abducted my daughter. On Saturday, when the landlord opened the lock of the accused’s room, we found my daughter’s body,” he added.
Model Town station-house officer (SHO) sub-inspector Avneet Kaur said the body was decomposing and it is likely that she was murdered on the day she went missing.
The cause of death will be ascertained after the autopsy, he added.
The SHO said it is yet to ascertained if the woman was sexually assaulted.
A murder case has been registered against the accused, he added.