While a student of the Assam Agricultural University in Jorhat was found dead in a toilet of the Kamakhya Express in the morning, 10 July, the body of an elderly woman was found in a toilet of the Avadh Assam Express, 11 July, in the afternoon, the police said.
The body of the Assam Agricultural University student was found from a toilet of the Kamakhya Express, when the train had halted at the Simalguri railway station in Sibsagar district, a police officer said. The body of the elderly woman, was found in a toilet of the Avadh Assam Express that had halted at the Mariani Junction railway station in Jorhat district, the police and railway officials said.
It appeared that both women were killed in a similar fashion, railway officials said. The deceased student’s neck was also tied with a piece of cloth and blood was oozing out of her nose and the lower part of her body. The same type of traditional cloth was tied around the elderly woman’s neck and blood was oozing out of her nose, they added.
The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has ordered an inquiry into the two incidents, a NFR spokesman said and the police released the sketch of the man suspected to be the killer of the college student whose body was found onboard Tinsukia-Rangia passenger train.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed and Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) R P Meena was asked to look into the incident, DGP Kula Saikia said.
Simaluguri is located 54 km from Mariani, and falls on the same railway route. The officer pointed at the similarities between the two cases to indicate that the same person may be behind both the killings. “Both the victims were Hindi-speakers, and happened to be strangled in train lavatories. Leaving the gamosas behind must have been the culprit’s way of sending a message, besides inflaming tempers,” he said.