Bhubaneswar, December 20: The Arun Bothra-led Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday claimed to have cracked the sensational abduction and murder case of a five-year-old girl of Jadupur in Nayagarh district and arrested the main accused, who belonged to the deceased’s village.
This is the first arrest in the case. The arrest came five days after the SIT, which was constituted by the Odisha Government on November 28 amid public outrage and political slugfest over the gruesome case, reportedly disclosed before the Orissa High Court through an affidavit that the minor girl was allegedly raped before being killed.
The accused will be produced in the POSCO Court in Nayagarh on Monday.
“One person of Jadupur, P.S:-Sadar, Nayagarh has been arrested today in connection with murder of a minor girl vide CID Crime Branch Case No:-14 dtd.25.11.2020 arising out of Nayagarh Sadar P.S Case No:-98 dtd.14.07.2020,” read a statement of the State Crime Branch.
A case has been registered under Section 364, 302, 376 (AB), 376 (A) and 201 of IPC read with Section 6 of POCSO Act.
However, the SIT did not reveal the identity of the accused.
Notably, few days back, the SIT picked up one Saroj Sethy, a college student, from Jadupur village along with two of his mother and sister from the village for questioning. The investigating team released Saroj’s mother and sister yesterday.
As per reports, the SIT found semen stains on the victim’s cloth that was recovered by Nayagarh Sadar police on July 23. However, the post-mortem report earlier could not ascertain the sexual assault owing to the decomposition of the body in July.
On December 3, the Orissa High Court had come down heavily on the Nayagarh police for the poor investigation into the case and asked the SIT for an expeditious investigation.
The Nayagarh Sadar police had registered a case of abduction after the child went missing while playing outside her house on July 14. Her skeletal remains were found from near a pond near her home on July 23. But the local police failed to unravel the mystery surrounding the child’s disappearance and killing.
The incident hogged limelight and triggered State-wide furore only after her parents attempted self-immolation outside the Assembly here on November 24 accusing Nayagarh MLA and Agriculture and Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo of shielding the accused.
