People protest against rape incidents, seek capital punishment, in Ahmedabad Tuesday. (Javed Raja)
Surat police on Tuesday said that a man from Andhra Pradesh has claimed to be the father of the minor girl who was tortured and raped before being strangulated to death. The police, however, said that they will verify the claims of the man and will carry out a DNA test before arriving at a conclusion. “A person from Andhra Pradesh arrived in Surat today (Tuesday), and claimed that the deceased girl is his daughter who had gone missing in October last year. We will verify whether he had lodged a missing complaint of his daughter with the local police station in Andhra Pradesh. We will also carry out DNA test of the man and the girl. He had brought Aadhaar card of his daughter with him. At present, we are working on his claims. Only after we get the DNA test reports, it would be confirmed,” Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma told reporters.
The body of the girl, believed to be between nine and 11 years old, was found in a bush near a cricket playground in Pandesara area of Surat on April 6. Her body had 86 injury marks, including in her private parts. Citing the post-mortem report, the police had earlier said that the girl was held captive, tortured and raped before she was killed. Following uproar in the country over other rape incidents, the Surat police made frantic attempts to identify the minor and had said on Monday that they believe the girl was from Odisha or West Bengal. Police had announced Rs 20,000 award for information on the girl and even pasted photographs of the girl on east-bound trains.
“We have circulated the photograph of the rape-cum-murder victim to all the district superintendents of police and police commissioners in the country. At present, more details cannot be revealed, but we are probing the case further,” Sharma said. According to sources, the man, who claims to be the father of the girl, belongs to Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh. The girl had allegedly gone missing from her school in October last year. The man claims to be a farmer and told Surat police that he had lodged a missing complaint with the local police. When Prakasam police received the photos of the victim from Surat police, they showed it to the man. As the photographs of the victim looked similar to his daughter, he came to Surat and identified the body.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat State Commission for Women on Tuesday sought a report from Surat police on the action taken by it in the case of the girl whose body was found on April 6. A team from the commission is likely to visit Surat on Wednesday to meet police officials to inquire about the incident, chairperson Leela Ankoliya said. “We have sought a report on the action taken to identify the girl,” she said.
(With PTI inputs)