The gut-wrenching murder of a 2.5-year-old girl in Aligarh sparked a massive outrage with many people across the country urging the judiciary to swiftly deliver justice by giving out harshest punishment for the culprits. Now, the General Secretary of the Aligarh Bar Association, Anoop Kaushik had declared that none of their lawyers will be defending the accused men in the court. He even asserted that they won’t allow any counsel from outside to fight the case on behalf of the accused men.
Anoop Kaushik,General Secretary, Aligarh Bar Association: We stand with the family of 2.5-year-old girl who was murdered in Tappal & no advocate will appear in Court for the accused. Advocate from outside will not be allowed to fight the case. We will fight for the child. pic.twitter.com/cwuiaQvwbz
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 8, 2019
Tina (name changed), resident of Tappal, Aligarh district, Uttar Pradesh, was choked to death by Zahid and Aslam over an argument with her family regarding a small loan amount of Rs 10000. The principal accused, Zahid had brutally strangled Tina with a dupatta (scarf) and hid the body in his house in a straw bag. After three days when the corpse started emitting a foul odour, Zahid threw Tina’s body in a pile of trash. Tina’s body was completely decomposed with her eyes gouged out.
The post-mortem report said that vital parts of Tina’s body were missing and it couldn’t be determined with certainty whether she was subjected to sexual assault or not. Earlier, Tina’s mother had alleged that Aslam, another co-accused in the case had previously raped his own daughter after which his wife has taken their daughter away to her parent’s house.
Following the murder, the Uttar Pradesh has set up an SIT to investigate the case. As per the Police, the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act will also be applied to the case. According to DG (Law & Order) Anand Kumar, Aligarh SSP has set up an SIT to fast-track the case and ensure that the culprits are brought to justice. He added that investigation is proceeding on the basis of scientific evidence.
In addition, the police have made two more arrests in the case on Saturday, including the wife of Zahid and his younger brother. So far, 4 arrests have been made in the case. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising of 6 members is to submit their probe report within 3 weeks.
