Bokaro, Apr 12: Twenty-eight police personnel were suspended after the skeletal remains of an 18-year-old woman, who had been missing for eight months, were recovered in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district, an official said on Sunday.
The remains of the woman, including bones and hair, were recovered on Saturday from a secluded area near Chas College in the Pindrajora police station area, Superintendent of Police Harvinder Singh said.
“A total of 28 police personnel, including the officer-in-charge of Pindrajora, have been suspended for dereliction of duty in the probe into the victim’s abduction and murder,” he said.
“The suspended police personnel colluded with the accused, and were even seen partying with him. They also breached confidentiality. Money was also transacted with the accused. Because of this, the image of the police has been tarnished among the common people,” he added.
Singh said the accused was apprehended following analysis of the victim’s mobile phone call detail records and other technical inputs.
“During sustained interrogation based on technical, circumstantial and human evidence, the accused confessed to the crime,” he said.
“The victim and the accused had been in contact for nearly three years. The woman was allegedly pressuring him to marry her, which led him to plot the murder,” he said.
On July 21 last year, when the victim had gone to Chas College for admission to an undergraduate course, the accused met her and took her to an isolated spot about 1.5 km away, the officer said.
Singh said he stabbed her to death there, hid the body in bushes and disposed of the blood-stained knife while returning.
After confessing to the crime, the accused led the investigators to the scene, resulting in the recovery of 19 bone fragments, strands of hair, the victim’s clothes and the murder weapon, police said.
The victim’s mother had lodged a complaint on July 24, alleging that her daughter had been kidnapped.
A case was registered only on August 4 against “unknown persons”.
The case later drew judicial scrutiny after the mother approached the Jharkhand High Court, which pulled up DGP Tadasha Mishra over the alleged assault of a relative of the victim.
A division bench headed by Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad questioned Mishra on why criminal action had not been initiated against the SP in connection with the alleged lapses. (PTI)
