GUWAHATI, June 17: A key accused in the alleged gangrape and murder of two minor girls in Kokrajhar district under Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) was shot at by police when he tried to escape during a search operation, sources said on Thursday.
Farizul Rahman (22) is currently being treated at Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital in Barpeta for “grievous” injuries.
Police sources said that Farizul, one of the three main accused arrested in the ghastly incident, had claimed during interrogation at Kokrajhar Sadar Police Station, that he would help police recover a mobile phone belonging to one of the accused inside a jungle at Bedlangmari in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
However, at the spot where he led the police to, there was a machete hidden and not a mobile phone. Thereafter, when he tried to attack the policemen with the sharp weapon and escape, police reportedly fired two rounds.
“An accused of the brutal rape and murder of two minors, led a police team to Bedlangmari to recover concealed material, but attacked them with a daav hidden there and tried to escape. Team resorted to controlled fire, in which he was grievously injured,” Kokrajhar Police informed through its official Twitter handle.
Seven persons were arrested last Tuesday in connection with the rape and murder of the two minor girls at Abhayakuti, about 20 kilometres from Kokrajhar town, the district headquarters. They were found hanging from a branch of a tree on June 11.
A special investigation team subsequently ascertained that it was not a case of suicide, as was made out to be, but of “rape and murder”.
The “mysterious” case was cracked in less than 48 hours after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had directed the inspector-general of police, BTR, and superintendent of police, Kokrajhar to conduct an “expeditious investigation” to unearth the cause of the twin deaths.