Police did not even try to look for my girl, says father
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
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 their pleas 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 Jhansa 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, Jhansa, in Kurukshetra on January 9 and her mutilated body was found more than 100km away in Jind on 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 Kirmach village in Kurukshetra. His family said police ignored their pleas that the teenager could be a victim. His uncle alleged seven family members, including the teen’s father and two minor cousins, were detained by police. “They tortured them physically and mentally. They were only suspects not killers but were given electric shocks to force a confession out of them” the uncle, who didn’t wish to be identified, said. A dozen police teams were working on the case but their focus was on the teenager and his parents. “Because of the police’s failure, even we couldn’t search for our boy,” he alleged.
Kurukshetra superintendent of police 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 the SHO, Ram Pal,” he said, adding investigators initially focused only on the girl’s schoolmate and his family. The SHO was suspended on the day the body was found.
The SP said the 18-year-old boy’s family was only questioned and no force was used against them. Though the family and some friends were let off on Wednesday evening after the body was found, the SP said they would continue to question them.