E-Paper
9-year-old’s mutilated body found in Ludhiana: Accused couple sent to two-day police remand
The police had arrested the victim Rani’s ‘employers’ — a grocer and his wife of the same colony — for murder on a complaint from her father, Jiten Ram.
A day after the mutilated body of a nine-year-old girl, missing for nine days, was found among bushes at a vacant plot in Durga Colony of Dhandari Khurd on Monday, the police produced the accused before the court on Tuesday, which, remanded the accused to two-day police custody.
The police had arrested the victim Rani’s ‘employers’ — a grocer and his wife of the same colony — for murder on a complaint from her father, Jiten Ram on Monday. The police action came only after residents of the area staged a protest against the accuses, Ranjit Kumar and his wife Priya.
“On December 16, Priya took my daughter claiming she had work for her. That was the last time I saw her. Priya claimed she had sent her to collect cow dung cakes. She refused to own up any responsibility for my daughter’s disappearance,” said Ram.
He said that Priya used to ill treat his daughter and forced her to work even after she wanted to leave the job.
Meanwhile, the accused’s neighbours met Ludhiana police commissioner RN Dhoke on Tuesday and claimed that the couple was innocent. They said the police arrested them under pressure after labour unions staged a protest against them and urged him to conduct a thorough and a fair probe in the case.
Meanwhile, kin of victims along with labour unions also staged a protest outside mini secretariat and demanded compensation for the family of the victim.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP city-4) Rajveer Singh Boparai said the police were questioning the accused. A case under Sections 302 (murder), 346 (wrongful confinement in secret), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (acts done by several persons with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the accused.
On Monday, an area resident alerted them about the body. Rani was the youngest of six siblings. The family belongs to Bihar’s Darbangha. Ram said the accused used to take his daughter forcibly to work.
