Hazaribag Minor Death: Police Rule Out Sexual Assault, Focus on Asphyxia

Hazaribag/Ranchi: Police on Wednesday claimed that the 12-year-old girl, whose body was found in Hazaribag district last week, wasn’t sexually assaulted, even as the political war of words continued over the incident.

Based on the post-mortem report, police said that the death was caused due to asphyxia as culprits pressed her mouth and nose, leading to suffocation. Police officer Sapan Mahtha said, “Post-mortem report has rejected the rape claim. Even the claim of cutting of her tongue and breaking her teeth is also ruled out.”

Sources said that the report has been submitted in the court. They claimed that a relative of the girl and her lover, suspected to be involved in the crime, allegedly tried to divert the investigation after the body was found.

The girl went missing after she went to watch ‘Mangala Julus’, part of Ram Navami celebrations, on March 24. Her body was found near a school on March 25.

Sources said that only after she died, her face was crushed with a stone and a stick inserted in her private parts to make it appear like a sexual assault — a detail also mentioned in the postmortem report. The murder took place at one spot and her body was dumped at another place.

On Wednesday morning, Hazaribag SP Anjani Anjan and his team visited the girl’s village with the SIT to review the investigation. Deputy commissioner Shashi Prakash Singh too visited the bereaved family. “About 20 have been detained in connection with the incident and are being questioned,” said a source.

On the other hand, both Congress, part of the ruling alliance as well as opposition BJP, continued to corner the state govt on Wednesday over the law-and-order situation.

While AICC national secretary and ex-MLA Amba Prasad moved the governor citing lack of arrests in connection with the incident and other issues, a BJP delegation met DGP Tadasha Mishra to press for speedy arrests.

Talking to reporters outside the Lok Bhawan, Prasad said, “I urged the governor for his intervention over the incident in Hazaribag involving a minor girl. Both the DC and SP of the district must be immediately removed. Till date, police haven’t been able to nab the culprits. The entire administration seems to be acting at the behest of corporates and harassing farmers and poor land owners in the name of land acquisition for mining.”

State BJP spokesperson Pratul Shah Deo said that NCRB data suggests that from Jan 2020 to Jan this year, there have been 10,113 cases of rape, more than 11,000 kidnapping cases, over 60,000 incidents of theft, 9,213 murders, and a total of 2.8 lakh cognisable crimes in Jharkhand. “Criminal cases have increased since 2020,” he said.