Shimla rape case turns on its head: CBI says minor was raped and killed by woodcutter, not six as claimed by Himachal cops

NEW DELHI: Debunking the Himachal Pradesh Police investigation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested a woodcutter for the rape and murder of a teenage girl whose gruesome death in Kothkai area led to violent protests in the hill state.  

The Himachal Pradesh police had claimed that the 16-year-old girl was gang raped and murdered by six accused, including a Nepalese national who later died in its custody. 

But, the CBI said, Anil Kumar alias Nilu — a native of Kangra district — was involved in the crime. Kumar was arrested on April 13. Sources said the girl was returning from school when Anil raped and smothered her to death in a wooded area. The girl was found dead two days after she went missing on July 4, 2017. Sources in the CBI said none of the six police suspects were present at Kothkai and also that their DNA samples didn’t match with the one extracted from the crime spot. After taking over the investigation, the CBI had arrested nine police officials in the case relating to the custodial death of accused Suraj Singh. 

The federal agency said the breakthrough was made through scientific evidence gathered by a 40-member team over a period of nine months. “The team thoroughly combed various areas including forest where the body was found, and questioned over 1,000 people in the sparsely populated region. It collected around 250 blood samples. CFSL experts conducted scientific tests, including DNA profiling by using advance techniques of ‘percentage match’ and ‘lineage match’. After thorough examining of these scientific tests, the DNA profiles extracted from samples seized from the crime scene were matched,” the CBI said in a statement.

The team, it said, matched the DNA samples in the second stage. Finally, one of the DNA sample of a distant relative of the accused matched up to a certain percentage. The CBI found that the accused, who was out on bail in an attempt to murder case, was absconding. 

“The area of investigation included Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and Uttarakhand. It was also alleged that the arrested accused did not carry any mobile phone and was not in touch with his family but the CBI kept watch on certain people whom he could call from public phones or phones of the other people. Subsequently, the suspect was tracked and apprehended from a village near Hatkoti in Shimla district,” the probe agency said. 

POLICE THEORY 

• Gudiya (name changed) was allegedly intercepted by six people, who drugged her before gang raping and strangling her.

• The five dragged her body away from the road to dump it in a forested area near her home at Kotkhai tehsil.

• Gudiya’s body was traced on July 6, two days after she went missing. But the girl’s family refused to accept the police theory of rape and murder. 

CBI THEORY

• None of the accused were at the crime scene. No gang rape. Accused Anil Kumar alone raped and murdered the girl.

• Kumar and Gudiya were crossing a forest area where the accused found her alone. He stuffed a ‘chunni’ into the girl’s mouth and thrashed her brutally on meeting resistance.

• DNA samples of all the accused didn’t match with the sample found on Gudiya’s clothes, body.  Virtually clean chit.