16-year-old found dead on apartment porch roof in Rajasthan; kin stages protest, refuse to take body

JAIPUR: Family members of a 16-year-old student whose body was found on the porch roof of an apartment complex Saturday staged a protest outside the SMS Hospital mortuary Sunday. They refused to accept the body alleging foul play and demanded a thorough investigation.

The family claimed a young man, who had befriended the girl through Instagram and allegedly belonged to an influential family, was in regular contact with her. According to relatives, the teenager stopped speaking to him five to seven days before her death, after which he allegedly threatened her and claimed that no one could take action against him.

The girl’s mother broke down repeatedly outside the mortuary, while her father appealed to police to conduct a fair investigation and take strict action against anyone found responsible.

Family members accused police of attempting to treat the case as a suicide despite what they described as possibility of foul play. They also questioned the sequence of events, alleging that police initially said the girl had not entered the apartment complex, but later recovered her body from the first-floor porch roof of the building.

The student’s body was found Saturday around 7.30am, nearly 12 hours after she was reported missing. The apartment complex is located about 1.5 km from her residence.

Police recovered the girl’s slippers and spectacles from the building’s rooftop. A post-mortem examination was conducted by a medical board, while investigators began examining both suicide and murder angles.

Police officials said all concerns raised by the family would be taken into account during the investigation.