Mewat murders-rape had no beef angle: CBI
PANCHKULA :The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its chargesheet has debunked the beef angle in the murder of a Muslim couple and the gang rape of their two nieces in Mewat in August 2016.
The central investigation agency had submitted the chargesheet in a CBI court, Panchkula, a few days ago. The chargesheet says that the incident was the handiwork of four gangsters, associated with the notorious Axle gang, who confessed to their role in the Dingerheri incident after they were arrested by the Gurgaon police in September last year in another case.
The CBI had then taken them in its custody on production remand.
The chargesheet says the involvement of these criminals has been proved on the basis of scientific evidence, including matching of DNA profiles of the accused with that of semen found on the rape victims’ clothes.
On August 24 that year, the 40-year-old farmer and his wife were thrashed to death while their two nieces, aged 21 and 16, were raped by four armed men, at Dingerheri village of Mewat’s Nuh subdivision. One of the youths was suspected to be a member of a gau rakshak (cow protection) outfit.
Pardeep Raparia, lawyers of the suspects, said, “The case was unnecessarily given a communal colour. I have moved an application in the CBI court to discharge them.”
BEEF THEORY
Nearly two weeks after the
crime, one of the gang rape victims on September 10 had claimed that the attackers told her that they were punishing the family for eating beef.
On September 14, the victims also identified the four local youths in a court-monitored identification parade.
However, the CBI claimed in the chargesheet that one of the victim had identified as an Axle gang member, Jai Bhagwan. “She said she can also identify other accused gangsters,” reads the CBI chargesheet. The other three gangsters charged with the crime are Hemant (Dharmu), Vinay (Lambu) and Ajay Chauhan (Munna).
The special CBI court of Jagdeep Singh deferred the matter to February 27 after all the accused present in the case were handed over copies of the chargesheet on Tuesday. The court also directed the probe agency to finish its investigation soon.
CBI PROBE
The police filed a chargesheet against the four local youths in November 2016 charging them with gang rape and murder.
After their family expressed dissatisfaction with the police probe and NGOs and political parties demanded proper probe into the matter, the state government had handed over the case to the CBI in December that year.
The CBI challan says that during the course of investigation, blood samples of the four local youths were sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), New Delhi, for matching with the DNA profiles of the victims but they did not match.
It stated that nothing incriminating has emerged so far against these suspects except oral statements of the victims and their family members.
The challan also says that the names of the four emerged after the family members stated that the farmer’s wife disclosed these names before her death.
The central investigation agency has attached a report of the AIIMS medical board which opined that due to severe head injury, the woman can’t be certified medically/mentally fit to give valid oral statement. It, however, says that the probe is on material facts.