Following the search of the Dalit girl rape case, the accused was nabbed by the police on the evening of 18 Sep.
Barely a few days after the alleged rape and killing of 2 sisters whose bodies were found hanging from a tree in Lakhimpur Kheri, now a 17-year-old Dalit girl, who was missing since Friday evening, was found dead in a jungle near railway tracks. The police were successful in nabbing the accused namely Jitendra.
The incident happened some distance from her house in a village in the Faizganj Behta area of Budaun in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. According to the sources, the victim was a mentally-ill girl who used to go through the railway tracks on a daily basis.
When on Friday, the victim had not reached the home, the family started searching for her in the village area and later approached the police about the incident and we filed a missing complaint. The police had not taken any action in response to this as told by the mother of the victim.
When the police found the body of the girl at about 11 in the morning the following day, it was laden with mud and there were visible injuries on her neck as told by the police.
The victim’s family members have allegedly said that the victim was murdered after rape. On the basis of their complaint, police have registered an FIR under sections 376 (rape) and 302 (murder) of IPC and relevant sections of the Pocso Act against the unidentified accused.
The family has alleged that the police picked up the body without even informing them and sent it for post-mortem and adding that they came to know about the said incident only after they were called to the post-mortem house to identify the body of the victim.
The brother of the victim alleged that the Budaun police sent the body for post-mortem even before the arrival of the relatives.
“We are not happy with the action of the police as they didn’t notify my family and relatives after my sister’s death was located,” the victim’s brother continued.
The brother said that they were told that my sister had died in an accident. The distance from our village to the incident site is one and a half kilometers away.
When we reached the spot, my sister’s body was not there and added that the police had erased all the evidence from the spot of the incident, and thereby, we were told to go to Budaun city. I am sure my sister was raped before being murdered.”
“She often used to walk near the railway station, but when she didn’t return home on Friday evening, we filed a missing complaint with the police,” he added.
Additional SP Siddhartha Verma told the media, “We have registered an FIR on the complaint of the victim’s family members. It’s a case of murder, but the allegation of rape will be confirmed once the autopsy report is available to us.”
Later, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) OP Singh, also reached the spot and told the media that a case is being filed at the police station under relevant sections and strict action will be taken in this matter against the culprit. He further said that a post-mortem is being conducted by a panel of doctors and videography of the entire examination process will also be done based on the final report, action will be taken by increasing the number of sections registered in the case and the culprit will be caught very soon, the SSP added.
The police are successful in nabbing the accused in the late evening of 18th September after some of the villagers told that they had seen the victim near the railway station with the accused who used to give her sweets to eat from his shop.
The accused was drunk at that time when he murdered her and accepted that he killed her by putting sand and clothes in the mouth of the victim. He said he doesn’t want to kill her but she will tell her parents about the incident following which I killed her.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on sexual assault and rape cases.)
