GUWAHATI: Police in India’s northeastern state of Assam are investigating the death of Nimisha Thakuria as a suspected murder. Thakuria was a 22-year-old sociology student at Gauhati University.
The man arrested in the case, 26-year-old Ashiq Ali, says she took her own life. Investigators have not accepted that account, and the postmortem report is awaited, Indian outlet News24 Digital reported.
Thakuria was found dead at a homestay on the outskirts of Guwahati early on Saturday, September 26. Ali had been staying there with her, and police arrested him soon afterward.
According to News24 Digital, police said no trace of blood was found on Thakuria’s body or on the floor of the room. However, police also noted injury marks on her body, as reported by India TV News.
Bolin Deori is Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for the West Zone of the Guwahati Police Commissionerate. Quoted by news agency ANI, Deori said Ali claimed Thakuria had hanged herself from a ceiling fan. Deori said police would establish whether that account was true, pointing to injury marks found on the body.
Deori also said investigators were examining the relationship between the two. According to The Sentinel (Assam), Ali reportedly admitted he had been in a relationship with her.
News24 Digital reported that police are questioning the homestay owner, the caretaker and other staff members. Investigators say the forensic and postmortem reports will be decisive in establishing the cause and circumstances of death.
Family friend Gautam Das told News24 Digital that Thakuria had told her family she would spend the night at a friend’s house. According to Das, she called her mother at around 2 a.m. and cried, “Mother, they will kill me.” He alleged that her phone may then have been taken from her.
Her father gave a fuller account of the call to Guwahati-based broadcaster Northeast Live. He quoted his daughter as saying, “Maa, they are beating me. They are kicking me in my chest.” He said the phone switched off within seconds, and that the family heard two voices in the background.
Police have not independently verified the contents of the call. They say it is part of the investigation.
Bipul Bailung, the homestay’s caretaker, told the media he heard a man shouting during the night, apparently trying to wake someone, News24 Digital reported. He and two colleagues went outside but at first found no one.
Bailung said they later heard crying and followed the sound to a room. There they found Ali holding Thakuria, whose body was lying on the floor.
The staff alerted the homestay owners, who arranged an ambulance. According to The Governance Post, the owner told police that Thakuria and Ali had often stayed at the homestay together.
The Sentinel reported that residents of Azara blocked National Highway 17, the road to Guwahati airport. The blockade followed a magisterial inquest that reportedly recorded injuries on Thakuria’s face, head, hands and private parts.
Separately, News24 Digital reported that some protesters alleged the case was one of “love jihad” and blocked a road, and that police persuaded them to clear it. According to Kerala Kaumudi, the protests began after it emerged that Thakuria was Hindu and Ali was Muslim.
“Love jihad” is a term used by Hindu nationalist groups to allege that Muslim men target Hindu women for religious conversion. The claim has been widely disputed. Police have not linked this case to any such motive.
The Sentinel reported that Thakuria’s body was handed over to her family after the postmortem. Her father said his daughter had suffered before she died and demanded that whoever was responsible be punished under the law.
The case has also added to concern over violence against young women in the city. Northeast Live reported it as the third alleged killing of a young woman in and around Guwahati within a month.
At the time of filing, The Lahore Times had found no verified formal statement on the case from Assam’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian National Congress, or the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
The Guwahati case bears painful similarities to one of Pakistan’s most closely followed criminal trials: the murder of Noor Mukadam in Islamabad.
According to Independent Pakistan, Mukadam, 27, was found murdered at Zahir Jaffer’s residence in Islamabad’s Sector F-7/4 on July 20, 2021. Investigators found she had been tortured before being killed. Jaffer was arrested at the scene, and police said DNA and fingerprint evidence tied him to the crime.
As in Guwahati, the victim was a young woman killed at a private residence, allegedly by a man she knew. As in Guwahati, her family and the public demanded justice.
The difference lay in how the case unfolded. Pakistan’s public debate centred on women’s safety rather than communal identity. As The Current noted, the case sparked nationwide outrage and prompted debate about the safety of women in the country.
Pakistan’s courts pursued the case through every tier of the judiciary, according to Dawn. In February 2022, a district and sessions court sentenced Jaffer to death, and the Islamabad High Court later dismissed his appeal. In May 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for murder, while commuting his separate death sentence for rape to life imprisonment.
Earlier this year, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Hashim Kakar dismissed Jaffer’s review petition, The Express Tribune reported. The bench also rejected his request for a medical board to assess his mental health.
Speaking outside the court, Noor’s father, Shaukat Mukadam, urged young women to raise their voices against oppression.
In Guwahati, investigators say the postmortem and forensic reports will determine whether the case proceeds as a murder prosecution. Until the charges are proven in court, Ali’s arrest does not establish guilt.
For Thakuria’s family, as for the Mukadams five years ago, the wait for answers has only begun.
Sources: News24 Digital (India), ANI via India TV News, The Sentinel (Assam), Northeast Live, The Governance Post, Kerala Kaumudi, Dawn, The Express Tribune, The Current, and Independent Pakistan.
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