Police filed a chargesheet on 2 September which revealed that the 14-year-old girl was alive when she was burned, nearly a month after her remains were discovered inside a coal furnace in Bhilwara, Rajasthan. She was a victim of gang rape.
The names of nine out of 11 perpetrators are included in the chargesheet, which is more than 400 pages long and was submitted to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in the Shahpura district by the investigating officer (IO) and Kotari Deputy Superintendent of Police Shyam Sunder Bishnoi. Two juveniles who were involved in the crime would have a separate chargesheet filed against them.
On 3 August at Koatri in Bhilwara, now a part of the Shahpura district, the minor was set on fire after being gang-raped. Senior police officials claimed that the horrible event presented the investigating officer with one of his most difficult probes.
While some of the teenager’s incinerated body parts were pulled from the furnace, others were left strewn around which needed to be found, meticulously collected and maintained for the purpose of a thorough forensic investigation.
It was also difficult to prove gang rape in the absence of vaginal swab samples. The police team asked forensic professionals for assistance in collecting specimens from the accused in order to prove the crime. All of the evidence was presented in court and indicated that the victim had been exposed to a petroleum-based substance prior to being set ablaze.
The girl’s body was recovered early on the morning of 3 August in a brick kiln in a field next to her home which led to the discovery of the crime. She was from Narsinghpura village in the Girdiya Panchayat region of the Shahpura district. She went to graze goats on 2 August along with her mother and somehow got separated from her and then could not be found.
The family and the villagers rushed to the police station to file a missing person report after they were unable to locate the minor, however, the police did not file a case. They found her bones in the kiln after they tried to search for her again.
