UP man joins SIT investigation

KARNAL: Three weeks after his hand was chopped off and he was booked for sodomising an 11-year-old in Panipat’s Kishanpura locality, Akhlaq Salmani joined the investigation on Friday.

Panipat DSP (headquarters) Satish Kumar Vats said Akhlaq, who hails from UP, had reached Panpiat and joined the investigation. “His blood samples have been taken for DNA examination. The samples will be matched with the chopped hand recovered from the railway track.”

Vats, who is leading the special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe the matter, said DNA reports will be crucial in the case as Akhlaq has accused some people of Kishanpura locality of beating him up and chopping off his hand when a sawing machine when he knocked on their door to ask for drinking water on the intervening night of August 23 and 24. Police say there is a possibility that his hand was chopped off by a train as the government railway police spotted him on the railway track the next morning.

Akhlaq says he was dumped on the railway track by his assailants.

A man from the same locality had also accused Akhlaq of sodomising his 11-year-old son on the same day.

He has been booked for kidnapping under the Indian Penal Code and under sections of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

On being asked why Akhlaq had not been arrested, the DSP said it was because he was still under treatment and had also come to Panipat in an ambulance. “He will be called in as and when required,” he said.