A total of 10 persons, including four women, have been booked in connection with the alleged gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara whose body parts were found in a coal furnace, police said on Friday.
Four men have been arrested while one minor has been detained, they added.
The victim was allegedly murdered and later burned in a coal furnace in a village of the Bhilwara district, with locals claiming that she was also gang-raped.
According to officials, an ASI of the Kotra police station has been suspended for alleged negligence in the case as he did not act promptly when the girl’s family members reached the police station on Wednesday to report the girl’s disappearance.
During a search operation, some half-burnt body parts suspected to belong to the deceased were recovered from a pond in the village on Friday, the police said.
Calling this a “rarest of the rare case”, Bhilwara SP Adarsh Sidhu said all efforts will be made to ensure that the accused get the death penalty.
He said that some of the minor's body parts were allegedly burnt in the furnace while other parts were disposed of in a nearby pond to evade all evidence.
"10 accused were involved in the crime including six males and four women,” Sidhu said.
The accused who have been arrested are Kalu Lal (25) and his Kanha (21), Sanjay Kumar (20), and Pappu (35). The age of the minor under detention is currently being ascertained, he added.
The SP said Kanha and Kalu were allegedly involved in the gang rape.
Four women, including the wives of two male accused, were also involved in destroying the evidence. The other two booked women are the mother of an accused and the sister of another accused, the SP said.
“We will try to ensure capital punishment to all the accused through a fast-track court. It is the rarest of the rare crime,” he added.
The police said that the forensics team will corroborate if the girl was alive or unconscious when she was put into the furnace, and whether the body was chopped and then thrown into it.
According to police, the minor went missing on Wednesday when she had gone to graze cattle. The accused allegedly gang raped her and burnt her body in a coal furnace the same night.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJP has stepped up its attack on the state government over the incident.
The incident was highlighted in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Soon after the House met at 12 noon, BJP referred to the killing of the girl in Bhilwara and wanted the House to take up a discussion on the law and order situation in Rajasthan.
Former state president Arun Chaturvedi said, "Chief Minister Gehlot is busy preparing for the 2023 elections and is looking helpless in stopping crime against women.”
BJP national secretary Alka Gurjar called the incident “gruesome” while talking about it at a press conference at the party office here on Friday.