First conviction: Woodcutter found guilty in Kotkhai rape-murder case

Pronouncement of sentence on May 11; judge said 12 of the 14 crucial points of evidence went against the convict

The district and sessions court in Shimla on Wednesday convicted a 27-year-old woodcutter in connection with the rape and murder of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Kotkhai town four years ago.

The Class-10 girl was found dead in the Halaila forest in Kotkhai on July 6, 2017, two days after she was reported missing. (HT file photo)

Special judge Rajeev Bhardwaj held Anil Kumar alias Neelu guilty and reserved the pronouncement of punishment for May 11. CBI had on April 13, 2018 arrested Anil, who was identified by DNA testing.

This is the first conviction in the case that saw dramatic twists, including the custodial death of a man earlier suspected of having committed the crime and the arrest of a senior police officer in that connection.

The judge said 12 of the 14 crucial points of evidence presented by the CBI went against the convict. The most important of them was the matching of his DNA with samples found at the crime spot, he said. The judge ruled that the crime was committed on the spur of the moment when Anil Kumar came across the girl as she walked home through the forested area.

Anil Kumar, who attended the hearing from a prison in Shimla, pleaded innocence.

The Class-10 girl was found dead in the Halaila forest in Kotkhai on July 6, 2017, two days after she was reported missing.

Days later, the state police set up a special investigation team headed by Inspector General Z Zahur Zaidi.

Police arrested six men on July 13. One of them, Suraj, died in police custody on July 19.

Amid public outrage, the Himachal Pradesh High Court handed over the case to the CBI, which arrested nine policemen including the IGP for the custodial death. The custodial death case against the police officers was later transferred to Chandigarh, where it is currently being heard.

A 40-member CBI team had camped in Kotkhai for weeks and collected blood samples of 250 people living in areas nearby. The investigators subjected the five suspects, arrested by state police, to various types of forensic examinations including the DNA, narco and lie-detector tests, but their DNA samples didn’t match with those lifted from the crime scene.

(with inputs from PTI)