Police said the girl who turned up alive gave them a crucial lead — that she was accompanied by a girl from another village.Over the past few days, a five-member team from the outer district police has had to travel across villages in Jharkhand carrying posters of a dead girl — who was found chopped to pieces and dumped in a drain in outer Delhi’s Miyanwali Nagar in May.
Police had, at the time, claimed to have ascertained her identity and cracked the case. But the girl they thought was dead showed up alive at her village in Jharkhand on November 16, sending officials into a tizzy.
Left with the task of establishing the dead girl’s identity afresh, the Delhi Police has deputed a team of five officers to Jharkhand. “The team will come back only when they have established the girl’s identity. If the officers get tired, we will send other officers to replace them. They have visited several villages in Jharkhand with photos of the girl,” said DCP (outer) Seju P Kuruvilla.
With the help of local police, the team went through data of missing girls and spoke to villagers with help from translators, especially in villages notorious for trafficking. When the body was first found, officers from the capital’s outer district had gone around villages in Jharkhand with photos of the body. Some locals had, at the time, told them that she “looked like a girl who had gone missing”, which first led to the confusion. Police contacted the missing girl’s brother and showed him the photos, and he corroborated her identity “under pressure”.
Police said the girl who turned up alive gave them a crucial lead — that she was accompanied by a girl from another village. Vikas Kumar, the thana in-charge of a local police station in Jharkhand, said, “The girl’s name and village were noted down. We coordinated with the Delhi Police team to find her family. Her village was 75 km away… we got there and questioned over a 100 people, but there were no reports of anyone being missing for the past two years. We also went to neighbouring villages.”
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police team is preparing to question the three accused they arrested for the murder, who are currently lodged in Tihar Jail. “Only they know who she actually is,” said a police officer.
