Agra school girl row: Victim’s distant relatives on radar, 6 detained

Police detain six people, say distant relatives under scanner

The 15-year-old Dalit girl, who was allegedly set on fire by two unidentified men in a village in Agra on Tuesday afternoon, succumbed to burn injuries at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi during the wee hours of Thursday, police said.

The girl, a class 10 student, was returning home from her school when the incident took place. (HT File)

The girl, a class 10 student, was returning home from her school when the incident took place, they added.

The name of the victim has been withheld to protect her identity.

In a curious turn of events, a 25-year-old cousin of the girl also committed suicide on Thursday morning by consuming some poisonous substance.

According to police, he had gone to Delhi to meet his sister and was disturbed after seeing her condition.

In Lucknow, deputy inspector general (DIG), law and order, Praveen Kumar said, “The Agra police have collected some vital clues in the case. Some distant relatives of the girl are on police radar and we are searching for them.”

“Six people have been detained and they are being quizzed. Collection of evidence is already underway,” he added.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Agra, Amit Pathak said: “Half-a-dozen police teams have been constituted to crack the case. We are talking to the family and relatives of the girl. The family members claim they have no enmity with anyone. We are looking into other angles as well.”

Speaking on suicide by the girl’s cousin, Pathak said, “He was never taken into custody by the police. He had gone to Delhi on his own. We were supposed to question people related to the girl and we did so.”

“This suicide case cannot be taken in isolation as it has happened after the girl was set afire. It calls for a detailed investigation and we are on it,” he said.

Opposition parties comprising the SP, BSP and the Congress members also termed the incident as serious and said it reflected on the law and order situation in the state.

The Tuesday’s incident came as an embarrassment to the police department as it occurred on a day when the director general of police (DGP) OP Singh was in Taj city to review the law and order situation.

According to police, the girl was intercepted by two unidentified men, who allegedly poured petrol on her and set her on fire.

The incident took place at around 1.30pm on Tuesday when she was riding her bicycle back from school to her village.

She sustained 70 per cent burns and was taken to SN Medical College and Hospital in Agra. Later, the doctors referred her to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi in view of her deteriorating condition.

“The girl had suffered burn injuries and her airway was also burnt due to smoke and fumes which created a problem for her to breathe. Late on Wednesday night, she was put on ventilator but she could not make it and died at 1:30 am,” a doctor at the Safdarjung Hospital said.

“We interacted with the family members who spoke of no enmity. They are clueless about the people behind the crime,” the SP said.

According to the girl’s family and friends, she was a bright student who wanted to make it big in life.

The victim girl was second among five siblings – three girls and two boys. Her father is a labourer in a factory in Agra and her mother is a housewife.

Later in the evening, grief and anger gripped the girl’s village as soon as her body reached here from Delhi on Thursday evening.

Agitated over the death, the girl’s family and villagers demanded a compensation of ₹1 crore, a government job to the victim’s elder sister and early arrest of the accused.

They refused to perform the last rites till their demands were fulfilled.

ADM (city) KP Singh and SP, rural (Agra West), Akhilesh Narain Singh met the girl’s father and informed him about the steps being taken to nab the assailants.

They also promised a fair investigation into the case and asked the family to wait for post-mortem report from Delhi.

However, the family and the villagers remained adamant on their demands. The last rites were not performed till reports last came in.

A VITAL CLUE LOST WITH BURNT SCHOOLBAG?

AGRA Did a notebook kept in the Agra school girl’s bag, which got burnt when she was set afire by two men on Tuesday, had a clue for the police? A police officer privy to the investigation into the murder case said a classmate of the victim revealed that her friend was upset over some issue on the day she was killed. “When the family denied enmity with any one, the police reached the girl’s school. Assuring confidentiality, the police asked the students to cooperate in the investigation,” the officer said. “One of the students informed us that the girl was upset over some issue but did not tell them anything. She chose to write something in her notebook and then put it back in her bag,” he added. While on way to her home, the girl was set afire by two men and schoolbag was also completely burnt in the incident.