Bathinda, Oct. 15 -- A Bathinda district and sessions court has framed a murder charge against a 19-year-old youth from Maur town in the district, Mukul Mittal, in the death of a college student whose body was recovered from the Kotla branch canal on March 12 this year.

The deceased was a friend of the accused and both belonged to Maur.

In his order passed on Monday, the additional sessions judge, Rajiv Kalra, did not press a rape charge due to a lack of sufficient evidence, even as semen was detected by the forensic experts from vaginal swabs of the victim.

The order cited forensic reports stating that no poison was detected in the samples of viscera and it has confirmed the cause of death as ante-mortem drowning.

As per the detailed...