Even after seven days since the 16-old-girl was gangraped and brutally murdered in Kotkhai area of Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh, the Police officials are yet to make any breakthrough, though there are reports that four accused, allegedly involved in the crime have been detained.
Sources said four accused were detained by the Police from different locations and were taken to Shimla for questioning. “The accused are being kept at undisclosed location, but the Police officials are tight-lipped over the entire development as the accused have been detained on the basis of technical surveillance data,” sources said.
The four accused were also detained 2-3 days back too, but were let-off by Police for the want of any concrete evidence.
The Police officials have been dragging their feet in announcing their arrest as despite rigorous interrogation of the accused, there is not concrete evidence which could stand trial in the court.
Sources said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) entrusted with the investigations in the case has failed to gather any evidence from the crime scene as the victim was gangraped and strangulated to death at some other.
“The first priority of the Police is to identify the crime scene where the minor girl was gangraped and murdered in order to gather scientific evidence which could withstand trial in the court,” sources added.
Since the reports of detention of four alleged accused starting doing rounds on Tuesday evening, no Police officials and even the SIT officials kept mum over the issue, despite the fact that the news was first flashed on the Facebook handle of chief minister (CM) Virbhadra Singh.
The Class X student’s body was later dumped in the jungle near to the settlements of Nepali residents to divert the Police investigations in the case.
Meanwhile, the students in the victim’s school are not attending classes and are participating in protests by locals, demanding speedy and fair investigation in the case.
There are reports that some of the accused belong to well-off families and the Police officials want to gather full-proof evidence before announcing any arrests in the case.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the Class X girl was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Kotkhai area on 6 July after a passerby noticed her body that was lying in a jungle in nude condition.
Her autopsy report had revealed that she was gangraped and later strangulated to death. There were injury marks over her body and her limbs, leg and arm were broken by the attackers.
The girl had gone to school on 4 July but didn’t return to home in Kotkhai area.
The girl, along with her brother was staying with her maternal uncle in Kotkhai and she was pursuing her studies from a government school in the area.