Death of a minor girl in city: Police probe unsatisfactory: Father
SHILLONG: The relatives of the 11-year-old girl, whose body was recovered from a river near Burnside, Rilbong on Sunday, have expressed dissatisfaction over the apathy of police in investigating the case.
The body of Swagarika Das, a class VI student of Queenie School, Laban, was found floating in the river on Sunday at around 3 pm.
According to the relatives, it was between 1 pm on Sunday that the girl, youngest daughter of Sunil Das, a vegetable vendor at Laban Last Stop, had left the house at New Kenches Trace to buy something from the nearby shop.
“As she did not return home even after two hours, I searched for her in the nearby areas, but in vain”, Sunil said.
The father got the information that his daughter’s body was recovered from the river from police at around 4.30 pm.
Several people gathered at the river bank after spotting the body of the girl and it was a boy who identified her and informed the police.
The body of the girl was cremated on Monday after the post-mortem.
It was double tragedy for the family as Sunil’s wife had expired only in January this year.
“The police are not revealing anything about the progress of the inquiry and more painful is that when inquired about the post-mortem report, the doctor at the civil hospital informed that I have to get the post-mortem report from the Directorate of Health Services after three weeks”, Sunil said.
The family suspects that the girl was murdered and the body was thrown into the river which is far away from the house.
“There was no need for her to go to the river side which is quite far from our house,” the father said.
According to the father, those who saw the body had claimed that there was a 10 rupee note in her folded hand and some cotton in her mouth.
In the FIR lodged with the Rilbong police on August 10 , the father asked the police to take action against Dharmendra Rai, the husband of his eldest daughter, for his alleged role in the crime.
“Dharmendra had threatened to kill both of my daughters — Swagariaka Das and Swagata Das two days back (August 8) and in addition previously also Dharmendra’s father, mother and his four brothers along with Dharmendra had threatened to kill my daughters,” the FIR said.
In the FIR, the father of the victim also alleged, “I strongly suspect and believe that the above mentioned persons have killed my daughter “.
The father alleged that Dharmendra and his parents on July 20 assaulted her daughter in his house and also wanted to take away the baby.
“We even lodged complaint with the Rilbong police on July 20, but the policemen did not take any action against the culprits though my daughter had undergone a medical examination after the assault,” he said.
When contacted, Dharmendra admitted that his family had assaulted his wife on July 20 after she complained that he was coming late after playing cricket.
Dhrmendra however, said that he and the family did not have any role in the killing of the minor girl.
“I had gone out of the house at Lowsohtun on August 10 at around 11 am, and I was playing cricket at Lowsohtun Block VI, and returned home only at around 6 pm”, Dharmendra said.
Dharmendra never visited his wife at New Kenches Trace after July 20, the wife’s relatives said.
When contacted, the police said that investigation was on to ascertain the nature of crime and added that no one has been arrested in connection with the case.
“It is too early to say whether it is a murder case or not”, police added.