The family of the Class 12 student, whose decomposed body was found in Bateda near the Karnal-Kurukshetra border in Haryana on Tuesday night, has alleged that they were illegal detained and tortured, The Indian Express reported on Saturday. The Class 12 student was the prime suspect in the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Jind on January 9.
The Class 12 student and the girl were last seen together on January 9 in Jhansa village. They were both reported missing. The body of the 15-year-old girl was found mutilated and semi-naked 120 km away in Jind on January 12. An autopsy revealed that she was raped by several individuals, who also mutilated her genitalia and drowned her. The boy’s body was found about 25 km away on January 18.
The police detained the boy’s family – his father, brother and two other relatives – for questioning last week and released them only on Thursday, the report said.
“They were detained by police on January 13, after the girl’s body was found, and I saw them again five days later,” his mother Radha told The Indian Express. His father Jaswinder Kundora claimed the police officers “tortured” his younger son in front of him. “They slapped him, beat him up, spread his legs apart and kicked him in his private parts,” he said. “They even gave him electric shocks. After that, they stripped me naked, tied me to a bench and forced my head into a bucket of water.”
The father added that the police did the same with his nephew. But his younger son and nephews are minors. A relative said the two have not been able to move by themselves since they returned from the police station.
The family told Raj Kumar, regional director of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, about the “police excesses”. Haryana Director General of Police BS Sandhu told The Indian Express they will investigate the claims if the family lodged a formal complaint.
Kurukshetra Superintendent of Police Abhishek Garg said the family was only called in for questioning and not harmed in any way. Dheeraj Kumar, deputy superintendent of the Pehowa Police, said they did not have the equipment to administer electric shocks, the Hindustan Times reported.
The police said they are reconsidering their earlier suspicion that the Class 12 boy was behind the girl’s rape and murder. The Kurukshetra superintendent of police said: “Multiple angles are being probed, and we are still waiting for the final autopsy report of the girl.”
The police are also investigating a possible honour killings in the case, according to the Hindustan Times. The girl was from the Dalit community.
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