Nagaon, Aug. 9: A college girl was forcibly brought out of her house and allegedly killed by her neighbour, a boy of her age, in the central Assam district of Nagaon last night.

Though it was initially believed to be a case of rape-cum-murder, the family of the deceased and the police denied it subsequently.

The incident took place in Kawaimari under Rupahihat police station in Nagaon district. The minority-dominated area is 160km from Guwahati.

Police said the girl was forcibly brought out by a local youth from her house and killed in the paddy field located behind her residence. Local villagers recovered the body from the field this morning and reported the matter to the police.

The 17-year-old girl was a student of Class XI at a private junior college in Nagaon town, around 35km from her home. She belonged to an economically backward farming family.

The incident reflected the growing incidents of crimes against women in Assam.

According to information provided by the state government to the Assembly on August 4, altogether 12,168 cases of crimes against women were registered from January to July this year, up from 17,449 cases last year in the state.

Overall, the state has witnessed 876 cases of murder, 3,261 abductions, 1,202 rapes, 680 extortion, 7,129 theft and 158 dacoities, two witchhunts and 11 cases of bomb and grenade blasts.

Preliminary investigations suggest the involvement of one Jamaluddin in the case. He is absconding, according to Nagaon additional superintendent of police Hitesh Roy.

“We launched a joint search throughout the area at night with the local people. Unfortunately, neither the girl nor the boy could be traced. This morning we searched the paddy field where her body was found,” said Abdul Karim, a relative of the victim.

In an unrelated incident, Kampur police today rescued a teenaged schoolgirl, who was reportedly gangraped by three men, from Rupahihat area in Nagaon district.

Sources said the girl, a Class IX student of Kampur Girls’ High School, was kidnapped on her way to school on Monday.

Police are yet to trace the youths who allegedly raped her.

In another incident, a four-member armed group kidnapped a girl from Balagaon under Rangia police station in Kamrup district around 10.30am today.

The girl was travelling in a tempo from Tamulpur in Baksa district to Rangia, a distance of 17km. Sources said the gang intercepted the tempo and whisked away the girl at gunpoint. Her sandals were recovered from the site.

Passersby said when the tempo had slowed down near a speedbreaker, the armed gang gheraoed it and dragged the girl away in a car. The girl was in “white uniform” indicating that she was a school student.

Rangia police sources said they have received the information from the public but family members have filed no complaint yet. They also said neither the tempo nor the car in which she was whisked away had been be traced.