18-year-old woman who went missing a day ago found dead in UP

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Muzaffarnagar (UP): Police on Monday found an 18-year-old woman dead in a field in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district. Reportedly, the woman went missing a day ago.

According to police, the teenager was apparently strangled to death and her body was found in a sugarcane field at a village in Thana Bhawan police station area.

District Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rajesh Srivastava said that the girl's family alleged that she was killed by her cousin brother, who could not be found after the incident, Shrivastava said.

The police are waiting for the post-mortem report to find out whether the woman was raped. A case has been registered against the accused, the officer added.

In a similar incident, on Thursday, Haryana Congress leader Vikas Chaudhary was shot dead in broad daylight by unknown assailants the police said. Congress president Rahul Gandhi condemned the killing and said it reflects the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the state.

Chaudhary, a spokesperson of the state Congress, was parking his car outside a gym in sector nine here when the assailants fired 12-15 bullets at the vehicle from two sides, killing him on the spot, ACP Jaiveer Singh Rathi said. Upon hearing the noise, people rushed to the site and Chaudhary was rushed to Sarvodaya hospital where he was declared brought dead, he said.

Rathi said the whole incident was caught on CCTV camera and 12 spent cartridges were recovered from the crime scene. He further said the attack appears to be pre-planned and the assailants, who came in a vehicle, knew that Chaudhary would come to the gym. The Congress leader was alone at the time of the incident and the bullets hit him in the neck and chest, Rathi said. The body was handed over to Chaudhary's family after post-mortem, he added.

A murder case has been registered and police are scanning the CCTV footage to identify the accused, the officer said, adding, several police teams have also been formed to search for them. Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, "The killing of Congress spokesperson and leader Vikas Chaudhary in Faridabad is a condemnable, shameful and tragic incident. It reflects the deteriorating law-and-order situation in Haryana. May Chaudharuy's soul rest in peace and may God provide his family with the strength to bear this loss."

With inputs from PTI

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