Five persons have been detained in connection with the brutal rape and murder of a 16-year-old school girl.
The police recovered the blood-stained, semi-naked body of a schoolgirl in a cane field in the wee hours of Sunday. The girl had injuries on her private parts.
Her father, a sanitation worker, identified the body. The girl's bicycle, school bag, four bottles of beer, and wrappers of snacks were found on the spot.
The family had filed a complaint after the girl went missing, based on which cops registered an FIR under sections 363 (abduction), 376 (rape) and 302 (murder) of the IPC, along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2013 at the local police station against unidentified persons.
The girl had left her home for the coaching centre on Saturday evening. When she did not return till late in the night, her family started searching for her.
The coaching centre informed them that she had not come to class on Saturday. The family then approached the police and said that they suspected a boy who was earlier seen following the girl.
The police picked up the boy from his home and took him to the station for questioning. However, he claimed he was not aware of the whereabouts of the girl.
The girl's body was later found in a cane field, nearly 500 metres away from the village. A piece of her suit was stuck to her mouth and she was apparently strangled to death using her dupatta.
There were injuries on her face, possibly caused by sharp sugarcane leaves, which seemed to indicate the hours of struggle that she put up.
Pilibhit Superintendent of Police (SP), Dinesh Kumar, said "Soon after recovering the body, we had secured the crime scene and forensic experts were called to gather evidence. The girl had injuries on her face, neck, and below the abdomen. We have included the section of rape in the FIR based on the complaint of the family. However, the autopsy will verify the allegations of sexual assault. Four teams are working on the case, and a few suspects have been detained. A breakthrough is likely soon."
