Tribal girl found dead, kin allege police apathy

BHOPAL: The post-mortem report of a minor tribal girl found murdered in Chhindwara district has ruled out rape, the Madhya Pradesh police said on Sunday even as her parents said her disrobed body was found in a forested area two kilometres from their home and accused police of asking for bribe to conduct the autopsy and delaying it.

In their police complaint, the parents said the 17-year-old girl was kidnapped on January 18 night after they left home to work in their agriculture field while she was asleep. They could not trace her despite an extensive search for days until her disrobed body was found on January 25. “The body was decomposed and her tongue was sticking out. Liquor bottles and water and gutakha pouches were found scattered near the body,” the complaint said. HT has seen the copy of the complaint.

In the complaint, they alleged the area’s police station in-charge, Kaushal Surya, demanded ~3,000 from the girl’s father for arranging vehicles to remove the body. He allegedly took ~1,000 and asked the father to give the remaining amount later. Surya also allegedly demanded ~5,000 for the post-mortem. When the father was unable to pay the money, the post-mortem was not done and the dead body was handed over to him.

Inspector general (Jabalpur zone) Bhagwat Singh Chouhan held a meeting with officials in Chhindwara on Sunday. He could be not be reached for comments.

Surya rejected the allegations of graft and maintained that an FIR was lodged on January 31 and the post-mortem ruled out rape.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former chief minister Shivraj Singh

Chouhan attacked the Congress government. “Criminals in Madhya Pradesh are so daring that they kidnapped a minor tribal girl in CM Kamal Nath’s district and gang-raped and killed her.”

Congress media coordinator Narendra Saluja hit back, saying: “The girl’s father did not file a missing persons report... Further, rape has been ruled out in the post-mortem report The BJP leaders are so insensitive that they have indulged in politics even over the death of a girl.”