Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

Police did not even try to look for my girl, says father

- Shiv Sunny shiv.sunny@hindustant­imes.com

KURUKSHETR­A: The families of a rape-murder victim and the prime suspect, whose body was found late on Tuesday, have accused the Haryana Police of inaction and ignoring theirpleas to look for their children.

The parents of the 15-year-old girl alleged that the police didn’t even try looking for their daughter the three days that she was missing. Instead police would ask him if had looked for her carefully, the girl’s father said on Wednesday.

“I visited the J hans a police station multiple times but the station house officer would in return ask me if my daughter had returned home or if I had searched for her properly,” said the father, who is tailor.

The Class 10 student went missing from her village, J hans a,

They (police) tortured them physically and mentally. They were only suspects not killers but were given electric shocks THE 18-YR-OLD BOY’S UNCLE

in Ku ru ks he tr a on January 9 and her mutilated body was found more than 100 km away in J in don January 12. She was raped and brutalised, the autopsy report said. “Do I have the resources to launch a search operation? Do police respond in a similar way in Delhi?” he said. “We depend on police to help us, but the local police did not even attempt to look for her.”

All that police did was to raid the house of her 18-year-old schoolmate who, too, went missing on January 9 and was seen as a primary suspect, he said.

The schoolmate’s body was found on Tuesday night near Ki rma ch village in Ku ru ks he tr a. His family said police ignored their pleas that the teenager could be a victim. His uncle alleged seven family members, including the tee n’ s father and two minor co usins, were detained by police. “They tortured them physically and mentally. They were given electric shocks to get confession ,” the uncle said. Police teams were working on the case but their focus was on the teenage rand his parents.

Kurukshetr­a SP Abhishek Garg denied the family was tortured though he accepted they “could have shown more promptness” after the girl’s family came to them.

“We have suspended SH OR am Pal,” he said, adding investigat­ors initially focused on the girl’s schoolmate and his family.

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