Chatra Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Kumar Singh said that the police were raiding the hideouts of the main accused and he was likely to be arrested soon. (Representational Image)
The Chatra police have arrested 15 people, including the village mukhiya and a member of panchayat samiti, in connection with the murder of a 16-year-old girl, who was set on fire by a young man after he felt humiliated on being fined by panchayat for allegedly raping her. The incident had occurred in a village under Itkhori police station area on Friday afternoon. Police said the main accused, Dhanu Bhuiyan, was also arrested Saturday evening.
“Following information, a team was despatched to Behera village in Chouparan area of Hazaribagh district from where the main accused, Dhanu Bhuiyan, was arrested. Further efforts are on to nab the other co-accused, Sudhir Bhuiyan, and other accused,” said a police officer.
The district administration, meanwhile, has given Rs one lakh to the victim’s family as immediate relief and would process her case under the provisions for victim compensation in such cases. Chatra Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Kumar Singh said that the police were raiding the hideouts of the main accused and he was likely to be arrested soon.
According to the police, most of those arrested are members of the family and relatives of Dhanu Bhuiyan, the main accused, for their alleged role in beating up the victim’s family members following the panchayat decision.
IG (Headquarters) Shambhu Thakur, who has been sent to Chatra to oversee the investigation, said: “The alleged offence was of compoundable nature. In such cases, a panchayat can’t decide the matter on its own. But a panchayat was not only held, but it also announced fine on its own, which ultimately resulted in the incident. Therefore, the mukhiya (Tileshwari Devi) and panachayat samiti member (Ranjay Rajak) are also among those arrested.”
Thakur added that special teams were on pursuit of Dhanu Bhuiyan, the main accused and he was likely to be arrested soon.
The police added that the entire episode started unfolding after the girl had gone to attend a wedding ceremony of her uncle late Thursday evening. “The victim and the accused lived in the same tola and their houses were close by. The victim had gone to attend her uncle’s wedding ceremony. There, the main accused spotted her and convinced her to accompany him. Another accomplice, Sudhir Bhuiyan, was also on the motorcycle. One of victim’s cousin spotted them leaving and informed her parents. Then, the family began searching for her. After about an hour, the accused dropped the victim back to the venue of her uncle’s wedding. However, by then, the word had spread about the girl having gone missing with a young boy. The matter was then referred to panchayat, which was held on Friday morning,” said a senior police officer.
Initial investigations have revealed that Dhanu used to work in Mumbai in a private company for the past couple of years. He had returned home nearly five months ago. “He had developed a friendship with the victim. In fact, when the panchayat was called, the accused and the victim accepted that they liked each other. The panchayat then proceeded to conclude that the family of the accused would have to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 and apologise to get the matter sorted out. This led to an argument between the families of the accused and the victim. Soon, it came to blows and, in the mean time, the accused went to the victim’s house; beat her up and then set her afire after pouring kerosene over her. He then fled from a window without a grill,” said an officer, associated with the case.