Hathras probe: CBI team visits families of the accused, searches their houses

LUCKNOW: After two days of intense quizzing of the father and brothers of the alleged gang-rape and murder victim in Hathras, the CBI teams reached Boolgarhi village on Thursday where they visited the families of the four accused.

The four namely Sandeep Thakur, Luvkush Sikharwar, Ramkumar and Ravi have been lodged in Aligarh jail in connection with the alleged rape and murder of the 19-year-old Dalit girl in Boolgarhi village of Hathras district on September 14. The victim had succumbed to her injuries at Delhi's Safdurjung hospital on September 29.

The CBI team led by Investigating officer Seema Pahuja reached the village at around 11 am on Thursday. The team was divided into two and separate teams visited the houses of two of the accused – Sandeep and Luvkush — along with the forensic team. 

Ahead of the CBI team's arrival, security around the houses of the accused was tightened.

As per sources, the probe team quizzed members of Luvkush's family for over three hours. Before heading to Boolgarhi village, two CBI officials also visited Chandapa police station again and quizzed the cops.

The sources claimed the team of the premier probe agency may move an application shortly and seek the remand of all four accused for custodial interrogation.

Besides quizzing the families of the accused, the CBI team conducted searches in their houses and the accompanying forensic team collected some samples.

Among the accused, Sandeep Ravi and Ramkumar live in the same premises and are relatives, while Luvkush lives away from them.

The sources also claimed that the probe team may again call the victim's family members and cross-examine them together before arriving at further conclusions as there have been alleged contradictions in their statements to the police from time to time.

On Wednesday, the central agency had interrogated the victim's father and two brothers for around seven hours at a stretch at the CBI's camp office, which is at the office of the deputy director (agriculture) in Hathras.

A 15-member CBI team had inspected the crime scene on Tuesday and summoned the victim's brother there. The victim's mother and aunt were also called to the spot later in the day. The CBI team also visited the place where the victim was cremated at 2:30 am on September 30 against the wishes of her family.

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