NOIDA: After several representations to the police and her family eventually moving court, an FIR was filed this month to investigate the alleged murder of a 16-year-old girl two years ago. The girl was found hanging from a grille in her house in Barola.
Though the family alleged she was killed, police said an inquiry concluded that the girl had died by suicide, and hence no case was filed. The death will now be investigated afresh.
The FIR has named the owner of the rented house where the girl lived with her family, Evin Chauhan, as an accused and invoked Section 302 (murder) and other charges under the IPC.
The girl was found dead on the afternoon of March 25, 2019. Her family had alleged she had several injuries on her body and told police they suspected Chauhan and others who would “misbehave with her” had killed the girl and hanged her from the grille. Police, however, claimed to have found that the girl was in a relationship with a youth from a different community and died by suicide after receiving a thrashing from her brother.
Speaking to TOI, the girl’s mother said she and her husband had gone to the market that day and, when they returned, saw Evin and three others outside their house. The four, she said, were running. She added that when she and her husband went in, they found her hanging from the grille above the door. A dupatta had been used as the noose. “She had injuries on her waist, chest and ribcage,” she said.
The family alleged that after a crowd gathered at the spot, the landlord asked them to cremate her before the police arrived. “Someone from the crowd informed the police. The cops took her body for a postmortem,” the mother said.
The autopsy report stated that she girl of “asphyxia due to ante-mortem hanging” and she had several injuries on her leg and ankle. Her parents filed a complaint with Sector 49 police station, but no FIR was filed. They waited and waited but before petitioning the national SC/ST commission on January 28, 2020. After that, the family said it wrote to the chief minister and director-general of police as well as the Union home secretary. But the investigation they wanted did not begin. And visits to the police station, they alleged, became an ordeal in itself. “The cops would misbehave with us and force us to leave the spot,” the girl’s father said.
In September 2020, the family petitioned the Surajpur court. This February, the court ordered an FIR. On March 1, the case was filed against Evin and three unknown under sections 302 (murder), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) of the IPC and sections of the SC/ST Act.
DCP (women’s safety) Vrinda Shukla said after the girl was found dead, when the family approached the SC/ST commission, an inquiry was conducted and the conclusion was that it was suicide, a step the girl had taken after she was beaten up by her brother over her alleged relationship with a Muslim youth. “At that time, the inquiry had concluded that the family members were upset over the girl’s involvement with a Muslim youth and her brother thrashed her. However, they are alleging another angle, which will be investigated now,” she said.