Girl was given strong doses of sedative: Police

KATHUA/JAMMU: The only resistance that an eight-year-old allegedly gang-raped and killed in Kathua offered was in her first few moments of captivity before the 15-year-old accused allegedly forced three pills of bhang (an edible preparation from cannabis) down her throat, while his friend held her legs firmly, police officials said.

Over the next three days, she was allegedly hidden in a temple, and fed even more potent sedatives — Epitril 0.5 pills.

“Doctors we spoke to said they have never administered more than 0.5 mg a day of this very strong sedative to their patients,” a crime branch officer said. “But this girl was forced to swallow eight pills over a three-day period.” A day after her abduction on January 10, the girl’s parents had reached the temple. “But the mastermind of the crime made sure they were sent away from the temple gates itself,” the officer said.

The biting cold of January provided them extra time to dispose of the body.

“The girl was killed on January 13, but the cold ensured her body did not decompose. It was kept in the temple until January 16 without any worry of stench,” the officer said.

The family of the alleged mastermind, a 62-year-old retired

› Doctors we spoke to said they have never administered more than 0.5 mg a day of this very strong sedative to their patients

CRIME BRANCH OFFICER

revenue department official Sanji Ram, however, refused to buy the police version.

“Why would he (the retired official) dump the body barely 100 metres from his home?” asked his wife, saying there was the entire forest to hide the body.

The police officer countered the claim saying they couldn’t have kept her in the forest fearing “presence of animals, particularly monkeys”.

The accused family claimed that Ram’s 22-year-old son, also an accused in the case, was in Meerut during the week and produced images of exam attendance sheets from his university.

The police officer said they got the sheets examined by their forensic team, which claimed the “signature did not match that of the accused”.

“You can see, my brother has signed on the attendance sheet on January 12 and on days after it. Do you think we have such contacts to fudge the records in a university in Meerut,” the BSc student’s sister said.