New Delhi: The investigation into the alleged rape and murder of an 11-year-old tribal girl in Rajasthan’s Karauli has taken an unexpected turn with police now alleging that she was “poisoned” by her parents and uncle. According to the police, family members allegedly poisoned the minor 24 hours prior to her death on 20 May — while she was still being treated at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Hospital for burn injuries suffered on 9 May.
However, relatives of the girl who was speech and hearing impaired insisted that the family is being framed. “The charges against them are orchestrated. They did not go to Jaipur after 16 May. How could they have poisoned her if they were not there?” asked Pankaj Meena, an uncle of the deceased. The parents of the girl were taken in for questioning on 14 June and have not returned to their village of Dadanpur since, said Meena, adding that the family was not notified and found out only through local newspapers.
Speaking to ThePrint in May, parents of the girl had stated that they were not present with her at the time of her death.
According to Brijesh Jyoti Upadhyay, Superintendent of Police (Karauli), the parents were arrested on 15 June. “These are the findings of our entire investigation. She was not raped. Her mother burnt her and her father poisoned her,” said Upadhyay.
However, the police statement, a copy of which has been accessed by ThePrint, states that after having a fight with her mother, the child ran away to a field about 200 metres from her family’s rented home in Hindaun city, where she doused herself in petroleum and set herself on fire. She suffered nearly 65 percent burns, mostly the latter half of her body, as can be discerned through photographs seen by ThePrint.
Doctors said that her chances of survival were slim, given the severity of her injuries.
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‘She must have done it to herself’
In her witness statement, recorded five days after the alleged rape on 9 May, the minor had identified at least one assailant — a 30-year-old man who happens to own the field on which she was allegedly attacked.
The police version suggests that the parents choreographed the attack in order to target the man. Police suspect that the minor was apparently repeatedly shown a photograph of him from 2015 by her parents, which is how she was able to identify him.
“She must have done it to herself, or maybe she was a burden to her parents; anything is possible,” Mukesh Sharma, a neighbour of the accused, told ThePrint last month. “He (accused) is an innocent, pure man. If he is arrested, we will take it up with the authorities,” Sharma added.
The family of the girl, according to Meena, is being “tortured and beaten up” in jail. He added that they spoke last evening at about 4 PM.
Meanwhile, a protest by villagers, demanding justice for the family, is currently ongoing in Jaipur. People from the city have joined as well.
As ThePrint reported earlier, the-11-year old girl was “highly intelligent” and communicative. She studied at a government school for differently-abled children and was home for her summer vacation.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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