A murder case in Punjab took a surprising turn when a woman who was believed to have been murdered, and was subsequently cremated by her family, appeared before the police. The case relates to murder of a woman, whose body was found by Patiala police at Patiala-Sangrur southern bypass on December 12. The incident came to light when a farmer spotted a gunny bag near the bypass.

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A Patiala-based family from Rupnagar district contacted police after two days and identified the body as their daughter Naina Rani. The family told police that their daughter had been married in Chamkaur Sahib village and ran away with her lover who is a truck driver.

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The family, who was also accompanied by their daughter’s husband, identified the body through bangles and jewellery as the face of the victim was mutilated. They alleged that their daughter’s lover might have killed her. The family performed the last rights of the dead body. On Wednesday, Patiala police division who found the body got information from Rupnagar police that Naina Rani has returned to village along with her lover.

Police now feels that this is a case of mistaken identity. The appearance of Naina has raised questions over the identity of the victim. “We will now identify the dead woman from her DNA and fingerprint samples. We had gathered samples of her hair and teeth during autopsy,” Patiala’s Sadar police station SHO Jaswinder Singh Tiwana told Hindustan Times.

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The police said the victim was strangulated as there were marks on her neck. She was also attacked with sharp-edged weapons. “It appears that the crime was committed at some other place and the body was dumped here around two days ago,” SHO Tiwana said.

“We have circulated the dead body’s photograph with details of identification marks to all police stations in the state so that she can be identified. Moreover, we are gathering data about the women who had gone missing in the state recently,” the SHO said. A case under Section 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered by police.