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Chandigarh: 15 year on, taxi driver found guilty of raping, killing 21-year-old MBA student
Monu Kumar had attacked the victim with a heavy stone in Sector 38W, Chandigarh, in July 2010; sentence to be pronounced today
Over 15 years after a 21-year-old MBA student was raped and murdered in Sector 38 West in 2010, a local court on Thursday convicted taxi driver Monu Kumar, who was nailed through semen preserved from the victim’s body.
While a copy of the order wasn’t available on Thursday, the court of additional district and sessions judge Dr Yashika convicted Kumar under Sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.
The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on Friday by the Special Women and Child Court. The victim’s family said they will speak to the media only after the sentencing.
Having managed to evade arrest for over a decade, Kumar, 39, was finally apprehended in May 2024 after an eerily similar crime in Maloya revived the probe that had gone cold for 14 years.
Forensic analysis had concluded that the semen samples from the bodies of both victims — the MBA student and a 40-year-old woman who met the same fate in 2-km away Maloya in 2022 — belonged to the same man.
Months later, Kumar’s DNA also matched the semen found on the clothes of a 55-year-old woman who was brutally murdered in Sector 54 on February 27, 2024.
Following his arrest, Kumar had revealed that he found the MBA student talking on her phone while sitting on her scooter near a secluded taxi stand in Sector 38 West on July 30, 2010.
He had attacked her from the back with a heavy stone, leaving her half dead. He then dragged her into the bushes where he raped her. The student was found in semi-naked condition in the bushes and was rushed to PGIMER, Chandigarh, where she was declared brought dead.
There were strangulation marks on the neck, and the body also bore severe injuries on the wrist, thigh and the back. According to police, Kumar was heavily intoxicated when he committed the crime.
As per the chargesheet, Kumar took one of her two mobile phones, sold it in the Industrial Area and discarded the other phone in a jungle. He also signed a receipt using a false address.
After his arrest, the chargesheet was filed on August 2, 2024, and the charges were framed on August 21, 2024. The trial concluded in just over a year.
Father of two daughters, drove taxi on inter-city routes
As per police officials, Kumar, who has studied till Class 7, hadn’t even registered for an Aadhaar card to evade arrest.
Investigators said Kumar worked as an inter-city taxi driver and thus, mostly stayed out of town.
A resident of now-razed Shahpur Colony in Sector 38 West, Kumar is the father of two daughters, but separated from them and his wife since 2011, said police. He originally hails from Uttar Pradesh and continues to face trial in the other two rape-murder cases.
He was also booked in a similar rape-murder case in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, in 2008. But acquitted after an 18-month trial due to lack of evidence.
Apart from the three murder cases in Chandigarh, he is named in seven other cases, mostly for theft.
How a semen trail turned a cold case into conviction
July 30, 2010: 21-year-old MBA student found murdered in Sector 38 West. Semen sample collected from body
November 2013: Police add rape charges to case after forensic report confirms victim was raped
February 2020: Police file untraced report in a local court, citing that all their efforts to arrest the accused went in vain
January 2022: 40-year-old woman found murdered near her house in Maloya. CFSL collects semen from victim’s body
December 2022: Central Forensic Science Laboratory verbally shares with UT police that semen collected from bodies of both women belongs to the same man
January 2023: Police reopen file on the 2010 rape-murder case, along with investigation into the 2022 case. Start profiling suspects living in the vicinity of the murder scenes. Around 800 men profiled and 15 prime suspects narrowed down
August 2023: Based on secret information, police collect a blood sample from suspect Monu Kumar.
May 2024: Police arrest Kumar after DNA from his blood sample matches with semen collected from the two victims’ bodies.
August 2024: Police file chargesheet, charges framed in court
November 2025: Accused convicted after a year-long trial.
