Killing of Dalit teen in Firozabad: Father killed girl, filed false complaint against rivals, says police

In his complaint, the girl’s father alleged, “On October 22, my daughter was heading towards school from home when the accused stopped her on the way. They misbehaved with her and told her they would kill her. We were scared and we didn’t approach the police. We tried to reason with them but they didn’t listen.”

According to police, the persons mentioned in the FIR — Manish Chaudhary, Gaurav Tak and Saupali Yadav — are not those who the accused believed her daughter was in touch with, but rather those with whom he had professional rivalries since they were also in the scrap business like him.

As the investigation began, police questioned local residents and neighbours to trace witnesses. Police were told that no one from the victim’s family had alerted the neighbourhood and they came to know of the incident only when the police arrived. Police took two of the accused in custody for questioning, analysed CDR records and CCTV footage, and found no evidence of their presence near the crime spot.

“We found that the police were being misled on the facts… The statements of the family were found to be contradicting. When we questioned further, a family member told us that it was her father who shot her out of anger,” said IG (Agra) A Satish Ganesh.

“We videographed the statements of the family members so that they could not retract it later… the father was angry about her daughter being in touch with some people. He was convinced that she was talking to them on the phone and had met them too. On the day of the incident, the father confronted her… The conversation enraged him, and he shot her with an unlicensed weapon. And then he created a false story,” Ganesh said.

Police claimed the girl’s father threatened his family members that he would kill them too if they spoke about the incident.

The two accused who had been taken into custody will be released at the earliest, police said, adding that the girl’s father is now in judicial custody.