Nayagarh accused above 18 years: SIT

BHUBANESWAR: A day after arresting a Plus-3 student for the alleged rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in Nayagarh in July, the SIT on Monday subjected the accused to bone ossification test, which revealed that he is above 18 years of age.
Based on the ossification test report, the POCSO court in Nayagarh has remanded the accused to three-day police remand for interrogation from Tuesday.
When the accused was produced in the court on Monday, his age was contested with his family claiming he was 17.
The lawyer, quoting the accused’s school-leaving certificate, said his client should be treated as a minor and produced in the juvenile court.
“We produced the ossification test report in the court. The report suggested the accused was between 18 and 19 years of age. The court accepted our argument and treated the accused as a major. The court granted us three-day police remand of the accused,” an SIT officer told TOI.
Senior IPS officer Arun Bothra, who is leading the SIT probe, visited the deceased’s village on Monday as part of the ongoing investigation. Bothra, along with other officers, again went near the village pond from whose bank the girl’s decomposed body was found on July 23, nine days after she had gone missing on July 14.
The police pumped out water from the pond in search of more evidence. The accused, who is a neighbour of the deceased, had allegedly dumped her body in a sack near the pond on July 14. But her body was found on July 23 following a foul smell.
Despite the detection of the case and the arrest of the accused, the deceased’s parents expressed displeasure with the SIT probe. “We do not think our neighbour is the accused. The SIT is shielding the main accused, who is a close aide of our local MLA and minister Arun Sahoo. We have been demanding a CBI probe,” they said.
The SIT said they have found enough evidence to bring the accused to justice. “We have adequate evidence, supported by proper scientific and forensic investigation, to substantiate the charges against the accused in the court. Sexual assault was the main and only motive of the murder,” Bothra told media persons.
The accused pleaded innocence before the media outside court. His family too alleged he was framed in the case.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)