Second SIT to probe 2019 death of JNV girl

Lucknow: A special investigation team (SIT) was constituted on Friday — the second within a two-year span to probe the mystery death of a Class 11 girl, who was found hanging in the dormitory of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Mainpuri, in September 2019.
Initially passed off as suicide and then kept pending for months, UP Police were forced to re-investigate the case after Allahabad high court on Wednesday, hauled up the force and sought a conclusive report within a month.The court order followed a PIL filed by one Mahendra Singh, who alleged that a lax police were protecting the accused.
Led by ADG Kanpur zone, Bhanu Bhaskar, the new SIT includes IG ATS, GK Goswamy, IG Kanpur, Mohit Agarwal, ASP Rakesh Yadav and DySP Kanpur Dehat, Tanu Upadhyay.
Agarwal is the only officer to be retained from the 2019 investigation team, which had failed to file a closure report, despite conducting DNA profiling of 95 suspects and lie detector tests on 10 others. Those interrogated were the girl’s classmates, teachers and school staff. Interestingly, garments on the girl’s body had semen traces, but the earlier SIT had failed to match DNA with any of the suspects. The girl’s father had then accused school authorities of delay in informing him about the death, questioned the autopsy report and accused the warden and principal of complicity.
The case was then handed over to Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF), but after the girl’s parents expressed dismay, the government sought a CBI investigation on September 27, 2019.
Two months later, the incident assumed political overtones with Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi shooting off a missive to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding justice for the family.
On December 1, the state government swiftly removed then superintendent of police, Mainpuri, Ajay Shankar Rai, and ordered a departmental inquiry against him and a three-member special investigation team (SIT) was formed led by Kanpur IG Range, Mohit Agarwal.
On Friday, the director general of police, Mukul Goel, held a joint meeting of officers of the current SIT and the 2019 investigation team.