Dalit children killed: 4 get bail as CBI fails to file chargesheet

Four suspects in the killing of Dalit children in Faridabad were granted bail by a special CBI court as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to file a chargesheet against 12 accused within the mandatory 90-day period.

Four suspects in the killing of Dalit children in Faridabad were granted bail by a special CBI court as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to file a chargesheet against 12 accused within the mandatory 90-day period.

Villagers of Sunpedh village, where two kids of a Dalit family were allegedly burnt alive by upper-caste Rajputs, blocked the Faridabad-Ballabhgarh highway. They were demanding arrest of the accused, in Haryana. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

On October 20, 2015, two children, a nine-month-old girl and two-and-half-year-old boy, were burnt to death in Sunpedh. As per the complaint of Jitender Kumar, the victims’ father, the police arrested Sanjay, Dharam Singh, Kartar Singh and Balwant Singh the same day.

Later, eight more people were arrested. They are also expected to get bail in the absence of a chargesheet.

The four accused who were granted bail had told the court that the CBI had failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated time and they should be given bail under section 167 (2) of CrPC.

According to section 167 (2) of CrPC, the detention of an accused cannot exceed 90 days in a case of murder.

The accused have been maintaining that they were framed as they were witnesses in the murder of three Rajput men by 11 Dalits.

Earlier the CBI court had allowed the investigating agencies’ plea to conduct a polygraph test on all the accused. However, the accused demanded that the same test should be conducted on complainant Kumar and his wife Rekha too.