Female kabaddi player's murder in Meerut is 'extremely sad and worrying': BSP Chief Mayawati

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, on Tuesday, stated that the alleged murder of a female kabaddi player in Meerut is "extremely sad and worrying."

She took to X, and said, "The news of the murder of 17-year-old national-level Kabaddi player Anushka Pal of Chirori village in the Sardhana Assembly constituency of Meerut district is extremely sad and worrying."

In a post on X, Mayawati said, "The news of the murder of 17-year-old national-level Kabaddi player Anushka Pal of Chirori village in the Sardhana Assembly constituency of Meerut district is extremely sad and worrying." She further added that the incident is deeply shocking to the society.

The former Uttar Pradesh CM urged the government for quick arrest of all the culprits to ensure strict legal action, so that victim's family receive justice and such incidents are repeated in the future.

On Monday, the officials said that a DNA test will be conducted in connection with the murder of the 17-year-old Kabaddi player whose skeletal remains were found in a drain.

The family, however, has accepted the remains to be of Anushka's (also known as Riya) and performed her last rites, the police said.

The samples have been collected for the DNA test and the parents' samples will also be sent for testing, Kankerkhera SHO Jitendra Singh said.

Player went missing a month ago

Anushka, who was class 12 student, had been missing since April 16. When her family could not find her, her father, Nempal, who is a resident of Chirauri village in Daurala filed a missing person complaint at the Kankerkhera police station on April 30.

Later, police claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of a 42-year-old man, Shyam Dhanak from Dehradun, living in the Kankerkhera area.

During interrogation, the suspect allegedly confessed to killing Anushka after a financial dispute. Dhanaka, according to the police, worked at a fast-food centre near Shobhapur Cut and knew Anushka, who had been liing in a rented accommodation near Shobapur bypaas for the past nine months for her studies and sports training.