The killing of the minor girl has caused uproar in the village with protest demonstrations taken out by local villagers and relatives of the family demanding justice for the victim.
Sami Ahmad | TwoCircles.net
PATNA (BIHAR) — Family of a 16-year-old Muslim girl, who was found dead under mysterious condition at her neighbours’ house in the Pastiya village in the eastern district of Katihar in Bihar on May 25, have alleged that the victim was “kidnapped and raped” before being killed. Police has registered the case as ‘murder’ and discounted the ‘rape charges’ till the second autopsy report comes.
The family is awaiting the second autopsy report being conducted at Jawahar Lal Medical College in Bhagalpur, which is ninety kilometres from their home. The local administration ordered a second autopsy after massive protests by the family and people of the village. The initial post-mortem report, conducted at district hospital Katihar, did not mention rape.
The Station House Officer (SHO) of Azamnagar police station Mantosh Kumar told TwoCircles.net that the F.I.R. has been registered under sections 302 (murder), 201 (concealing an offence), 120 (B) (conspiracy) and 34 (crime with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
He said that a case was registered based on the statement of the victim’s mother Nahida Khatoon, who is an Anganwadi worker.
To a query about allegations of kidnapping and rape made by the family, SHO Kumar said, “She (mother of the victim) did not mention either kidnapping or rape at that time (of filing her application).”
Discounting the rape, Superintendent of Police (SP) Katihar Jitendra Kumar told local media that “doctors of the medical board did not report rape.” According to police, the reason for death was “suffocation caused by hanging.”
The killing of the girl has caused uproar in the village. Protest demonstrations were taken out by local villagers and relatives of the family demanding justice for the victim and ‘exemplary punishment’ for the accused. A Twitter campaign for justice for the victim was also launched with netizens terming it a Nirbhaya-like case. She was finally buried on May 29 in her village in Katihar, five days after her body was found.
As per police, two accused, namely Kusum Lal Vishwas and Rekha Devi, have been arrested so far. “There are seven more accused in the case, including the wife of Kusum Lal Vishwas,” the police said. The arrested duo are neighbours of the victim.
According to the girl’s parents, the victim had gone out on the evening of May 24 to buy groceries. When the victim did not return home late into the night, her worried family started the search but could not find her.
Mujibur Rahman, the victim’s father, told TwoCircles.net that they looked for her everywhere in the village, including inquiring from the accused person’s daughter if she had seen the victim but could not find her.
“She was our only daughter among two boys,” Rahman said.
In her statement to the police on May 26, the mother of the victim Nahida Khatoon stated that the daughter of accused Rekha Devi did not tell them anything about the missing girl when asked. As per the family, Devi’s daughter was a friend of the victim.
“On May 25, one boy informed me that he had seen my daughter going to Sarala’s Singh house. Sarala Singh is Rekha Devi’s husband. As I reached their house, I saw Rekha and her daughter sprinkling water on my daughter’s face. I rushed back to my home and informed my family. When we came back again, we found her dead,” Nahida said in her statement to the police, a portion of which is available with TwoCircles.net.
As per media reports, the victim and the main accused Kusum Lal Vishwas are believed “to have known each other and were in touch.” The police are investigating the call records between the two.
Rahman said that he is shocked that Kusum ‘could commit such a heinous crime with his daughter.’
“Police are protecting the culprits by not adding the sections of kidnapping and rape. Her condition and the clothes were obvious proof that she was raped. But to protect the culprits, the first autopsy report did not mention this. I hope that the fresh report will confirm our allegations,” he said.
Mahboob Alam, a C.P.I. (M.L.) MLA, who was also part of the protest, accused the local police of ‘deliberate negligence as they did not pay any heed to the requests of the victim’s family.’
“When it was confirmed that the girl had been murdered, the police swung into action but the S.P. did not bother to come to the spot even then,” Alam said.
A public representative and former chairman of the Katihar district board Zakir Hussain, who was instrumental in demanding the second autopsy of the victim to be done at Bhagalpur, told TwoCircles.net that “there is no doubt that the police did not act on the first complaint of the victim’s family and did not act as fast as they should have.”
Questioning the post-mortem done at the district hospital, Hussain added, “We hope the second autopsy report is authentic.”
Sami Ahmad is a journalist based in Patna, Bihar. He tweets at @samipkb