The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday arrested the mother and two brothers of a minor girl for allegedly murdering her in the Sambhal district, The Indian Express reported.
The Class 9 student was shot dead on Thursday when she was returning to her village on a motorcycle with her brother and mother.
The three conspired to kill the teenager as they feared disrepute to the family because of a case in which the girl had allegedly been raped, PTI quoted unidentified police officials as saying.
One of the brothers had filed a police complaint naming a man, who had earlier been arrested for allegedly raping the girl, as an accused in the murder case.
Krishna Kumar Bishnoi, the Sambhal superintendent of police, told The Indian Express that the police investigation revealed loopholes in the complaint filed by the brother. “We were surprised how the brother and the mother who were accompanying the deceased on the bike survived unscathed when the attack was claimed to be carried out,” Bishnoi said.
The police official said that based on security camera footage and mobile phone details, it was concluded that the girl was killed by members of her family.
“The 20-year-old man [accused in the rape case] and his uncle, aged 24, were named as the accused [in the murder case by the girl’s family] deliberately so that the police would easily believe that both might have killed her in an act of revenge because both were arrested and sent to jail in February for abducting and raping the girl,” Bishnoi said.
There is adequate evidence to conclude that the girl was murdered by her brothers and that her mother and a maternal uncle were accomplices in the crime, the police said.
The police are still searching for the uncle, the Hindustan Times reported.
“They confessed to killing her claiming that she was still in love with the man who earlier was jailed and was out on bail now,” The Indian Express quoted Bishnoi as saying. “The mother claimed they had decided to kill her because her love affair was bringing disrepute to their family.”
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