SBS Nagar, June 7 -- Police have arrested a 23-year-old youth for killing his live-in partner's minor daughter and setting the body ablaze in the forest area of Hoshiarpur district's Khuralgarh Sahib. Vexed by her constant phone conversations with friends, the accused, Gurwinder Singh, strangled the 16-year-old and tried to dispose of the body by transporting it nearly 30km in a suitcase, said investigators. He then, accompanied by the victim's mother, Usha Rani, 38, a Class-4 employee in the Rahon municipal corporation, filed a missing person complaint with the police. Cracking the case with the help of CCTV footage and other digital evidence, police zeroed in on Gurwinder as the killer and arrested him on Friday. The victim's charred body was recovered from the forest area. Shaheed Bhagar Singh Nagar SHO Avtar Singh said the accused had been in a live-in relationship with the victim's mother for the past two years after she got divorced from her husband. A resident of Jadli village in the district, he worked as a labourer and had returned from Dubai two years ago. Giving details of the probe, SBS Nagar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Tushar Gupta said the minor girl went missing on May 29 and her mother filed a missing person complaint on June 2. When police launched a probe, CCTV footage showed Gurwinder carrying a suitcase on his motorcycle. Other digital and forensic evidence also pointed to his involvement. He was subsequently rounded up and confessed to killing the girl during questioning. During interrogation, Gurvinder revealed that he used to have heated arguments with the victim over her continuous communication with friends over the phone, the SSP said. He added that the accused confessed to strangling the minor girl to death around 7 am on May 29 and stuffing her body in a suitcase while her mother was away at work. "He then transported the body for nearly 30 km to the forest area of Khuralgarh Sahib, where he set it on fire to destroy evidence," Gupta said. The accused is facing a case under Sections 103 (murder) and 238 (destruction of evidence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. He was produced in court, which sent him to four-day police custody for further questioning....