Despite an eyewitness, cops take 5 days to file murder FIR

It took Mohali police five days to register a case of murder of a 15-year-old girl, whose half-naked body was found in fields near Chatt village in Zirakpur on August 10.

Even the statement of an eyewitness did not prod police into action.


A security guard of a farm near the spot, Fazaldin, 55, had told the police that two men came in an auto-rickshaw and dumped the body in the fields on the night of August 10.



Though the guard’s statement was recorded that day itself, the two unidentified men were booked on the night of August 15.

Legal experts say if there is an eyewitness, the police must register an FIR with immediate effect instead of waiting for a complaint or identification of body. Punjab and Haryana high court advocate Barjesh Sharma said, “Police not registering an FIR immediately despite there being an eyewitness underlines negligence on their part.”

Fazaldin, who first spotted the body and informed the cops, told the TOI, “I was on duty and sitting in a room on the farm. I saw an auto coming towards the farm and when it turned on a dust track, the driver turned off the lights. Two men got down and threw someone into the fields. I turned on the torch and they sped away towards Chatt village. Due to darkness I could not note down the auto’s registration number.”

Meanwhile, police suspect that the minor girl might have been strangulated after rape as her neck was tied with a piece of cloth. “The post-mortem will make things clear,” said a cop.

Police said the girl, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was living with her parents in a village of Mohali district.


Police await postmortem report

Zirakpur station house officer inspector Pawan Kumar said the two unidentified men have been booked under sections 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.

Assistant sub-inspector Gurmel Singh said, “Rape will be confirmed after we receive the post-mortem report. Investigation is on and we have started hunt to nab the accused.”