Woman murdered in city hotel room

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 1

A 29-year-old woman, a native of Punjab, who had checked into a hotel in the Industrial Area, Phase II, with her male friend on December 30 evening, was found murdered at a room in the hotel this afternoon. The man, who is the suspect in the case, had left the hotel a few hours after checking in.

The victim, identified as Sarabjit Kaur, a resident of Kakra village in Sangrur district, had checked into Hotel Sky, with her friend Maninder Singh (31), a resident of Sector 30.

The couple neither ordered anything in the room nor called the housekeeping. When the couple, who had booked the room till Wednesday afternoon, did not check out of the hotel as scheduled, the hotel staff knocked at the door, but got no answer. A hotel boy, Sumit, opened the door using a spare key and found the victim’s body lying under the blanket on the bed with some blood around.

The police said they received information around 1.30 pm following which they reached the spot.

Police officials said froth was coming out of the victim’s mouth and there was a slit mark on her neck. “The exact cause of the death will be known after the postmortem,” said a police official.

CCTV footage of the hotel shows the couple arriving at the hotel together. Later, suspect Maninder left the hotel at 11.56 pm on December 30.

On checking the hotel records, no other person visited the room. “The couple stayed regularly at the hotel. Their room was booked using booking app MakeMyTrip,” said hotel manager Vivek.

The police said the victim was a nurse and had worked in a hospital of Mohali. The victim and the suspect were in a relationship for around two years.

“The suspect had a private job in the Industrial Area, Phase I. However, he had left the job around three months ago,” the police said.

The body has been shifted to the mortuary of Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, and a case under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC has been registered at the Sector 31 police station. Raids are being conducted to nab the suspect.

The police said the suspect had stabbed a girl, with whom he was in a relationship at Karna Lake in Karnal in 2010. He was convicted of the murder. He was out on bail granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court since his appeal is pending in the court.