Andhra couple claims Surat rape victim was their daughter
A couple from Andhra Pradesh has claimed to be the parents of the Surat rape victim, Gujarat police said on Tuesday. The body of the girl, reported to be aged between 9-11 years, was discovered with 86 injury marks, including some on her private parts, in Surat's Pandesara on April 6. The police will now conduct a DNA test of the parents. Here's more.
Their daughter went missing in October 2017
According to the couple, their daughter went missing in October last year. Surat police is currently verifying if they had filed a missing complaint of their daughter at Andhra Pradesh's local police station. The parents had also given the girl's Aadhaar card to help ascertain her identity. As per the post-mortem, the girl was held captive, tortured and raped before being strangled to death.
Surat police have been receiving queries from across India
The Andhra couple isn't the only one to allege that the Surat rape victim was their missing daughter. Ever since the police pasted posters of asking for information across Surat and on trains to Odisha/West Bengal, they have been flooded with queries. It's been an uphill task for them to deal with distraught parents, some of whose daughters went missing five years ago.
Parents of at least 6 missing girls called to Surat
Most of the parents, who have been primarily calling from Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal or Madhya Pradesh, know about the case through news but haven't seen the victim's photo. Police have been asking them to send their missing daughters' photos through WhatsApp. Based on the images, police have shortlisted at least six cases and called the involved parents to Surat for further probe.
