Thaindian News

Lucknow, July 3 (IANS) The alleged rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl inside a police station in Lakhimpur-Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh took a new turn Sunday when another policeman was arrested in the case.

Police arrested Atiq Ahmad, the personal security officer-cum-gunner of Lakhimpur-Kheri police circle officer.

“Atiq Ahmad has also confessed his crime,” state Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told a press conference here Sunday.

“Atiq, who used to live in the police station premises, was found to have been trying to bait the innocent minor girl by often doling out money or gifts to her.

“On June 10, he went a step ahead and enticed her to a secluded corner of the police station quarters, and tried to drag the little girl into his room, but she resisted and screamed in protest, following which he first tried to gag her with his hand and then strangulated her with her own ‘duppatta’ until she was dead,” he said.

“Investigations have revealed that the cop initially left the place to offer namaz along with his circle officer Inayat Ullah Khan, only to return and then hang the dead body from a branch of a fallen tree in the vicinity to paint his crime as suicide,” the cabinet secretary said.

The 14-year-old girl’s body was found hanging from a tree June 10 night inside the Nighasan police station premises in Lakhimpur-Kheri.

Earlier, the local police had arrested a cook at the police station, Ram Chander, as the key suspect in the murder. While the circle officer was transferred, five other policemen were suspended. Besides, all four doctors responsible for carrying out the first post-mortem on the girl were also suspended.

The first post-mortem had dismissed the case as suicide. It was only following intervention of the government that a second post-mortem was carried out by a special team of Lucknow doctors, who confirmed the death on account of “strangulation”.