SRINAGAR – Last month, when a nomad family from Kathua district, 80kilometres away from Jammu, filed a missing report for their 8 year olddaughter among those appointed to trace her was a young Special PoliceOfficer (SPO) called Deepak Khujaria.
A week later, police found her body- she had been brutally raped andmurdered. Now, the police say, it was the same officer who carried out thecrime.
Khujaria, a 28-year-old SPO posted at Police Station Heera Nagar, has beenarrested by a Special Investigation Team of the Crime Branch for theincident.
The little girl was kidnapped when she was herding horses at Rasana villageon January 10. Her disfigured body was found on January 17.
The police said Khujaria, along with an underage boy, raped and murderedthe 8-year-old after holding her captive for a week.
“We have clinching evidence about his (Deepak Khajuria’s) involvement.There was motive and we have evidence as well,” said Alok Puri, theAdditional Director General of Police, Crime Branch Jammu and Kashmir.
The police say the accused has confessed to his crime after he wasconfronted with evidence. The motive behind the crime was to spark fearamong the nomad community.
Khujaria was part of a police team that had searched the area after thenomad family filed a missing report at police station at Heera Nagar. Whenmembers of the nomad community held a sit-in protest demanding justice onJanuary 21, the girl’s family said, it was Khujaria who started hittingthem with batons. Several people were injured in the police action.
“He was also part of the search party but he was not investigating thecase. Now we know what was the motive,” said Mr Puri. The investigation hasrevealed that the kidnapping, rape and murder of young girl werewell-planned and the girl had been targeted in advance, he said.
Nomads who have been fighting for justice for the girl say that from thefirst day, they knew who was behind the crime.
“On the funeral day of the girl, when we were lathicharged and I wasarrested, this man hounded nomads and beat them up. Since, Day One (Jan17), we have been demanding his arrest,” said Talib Hussain, a nomadactivist.
But after allegations of a botched up investigation against the KathuaPolice, the case was handed to over to the Crime Branch. Sources say Deepakhad threatened his underage accomplice with the murder of his parents if herevealed his name. Mr Puri said the involvement of more people cannot beruled out.
“At this juncture, I can’t rule out involvement of someone else,” he said.