On 16th February, Bengal Police exhumed the body of a 13-year-old minor girl who was kidnapped and murdered. The body was exhumed on the orders of Calcutta High Court. As per reports, the relatives of the girl approached the high court alleging that the girl faced inhuman atrocities and demanded a re-examination of her death. They had alleged that there were discrepancies in the original autopsy report and it didn’t match with the police report.
Accordingly, the court ordered Bengal police to exhume the body and initiate a fresh investigation. It has been revealed that her eyes were gouged out, and both breasts were cut off. She was later murdered. The court has now ordered a fresh autopsy.
History of the case
The incident took place in the Hariharpara area of district Murshidabad. The 13-year-old minor girl went missing on 26th January 2024 after she left at around 8 PM. When she did not return, her family members launched a search operation. According to Anand Bazaar Patrika’s report, they found a note in her room that said, “Don’t worry”. The next day, her mangled dead body was recovered from mustard fields in the village some distance away from her home. She had a rope around her neck, her eyes were gouged out, and her breasts were cut off.
The family of the victim alleged that a boy from the village kidnapped her on the pretext of marriage. He then raped and physically assaulted her. Based on the complaint, police registered a case against two suspects, and arrested them, a minor boy and his father.
The police prepared a detailed panchnama, which is the document prepared by police recording the details of the crime scene. In case of murder or unnatural death cases, the panchnama records the details of the condition of the body in which it was found, external injury marks visible on the body, location of any wounds or clothing, the details of the surroundings, objects recovered from the scene etc.
The report said that there were multiple injury marks on the body, there was a noose around the neck, adding that she was possibly raped. These details matches with the details provided in the complaint filed by the girl’s family.
The body of the deceased girl was sent to Murshidabad Medical College, where the post-mortem was conducted. However, the post-mortem report had glaring differences with the initial police report. The post-mortem report didn’t mention many of the crucial details mentioned in the police inquest report.
It was alleged that the minor was raped and killed. The accused father-son duo made holes in the dead body and poured acid in it to speed up the rotting process. However, the allegations were mentioned in the investigation report but not in the postmortem report. The investigation report, case diary and autopsy report had different facts about the case.
After this, the girl’s family approached the Calcutta High Court. After hearing the case, the High Court ordered to exhume the body and do a post-mortem again. The court ordered that the post-mortem will be done by the doctors of SSKM Hospital in Kolkata.
The body was recovered from the grave 20 days after she was buried. The body was sent to SSKM Medical College and Hospital for a postmortem. The court has ordered the second autopsy report to be submitted by 6 March.
The family alleges that the minor local youth abducted the girl from her home with the promise of marriage. She also allegedly took Rs10,000 while leaving the house.
