Bhubaneswar: A man arrested for the murder of a five-year-old girl had tried to have sex with the body after strangling the child at his house in Nayagarh district, SIT chief Arun Bothra claimed Tuesday.
Accused Saroj Sethi had strangled the girl from Jadupur village when she resisted his rape attempt. After she died, Sethi attempted to have sexual intercourse with the corpse, Bothra told media persons in Cuttack. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Bothra is probing the alleged abduction and murder of the girl. The SIT chief said the prime accused was addicted to child pornography.
He said that the girl had gone to Saroj’s house, about 100 metre from her house, July 14 to collect berries. Saroj, who was alone at his house, took her to a room and allegedly tried to undress her. She resisted and started crying, after which he strangled her.
“After killing the girl, Saroj tried to have sex with the body. It is one of the most disturbing and eerie cases in my policing career spanning 22 years,” Bothra said. While the accused failed to have sex with the corpse, semen discharge was found on the girl’s clothes, he added.
Later, the accused stuffed the body in a gunny bag and hid it under coconut fronds near a pond.
Reacting to SIT chief’s statement, the girl’s father said it was all scripted. “We have been demanding a CBI probe into the murder, but the SIT is creating drama. Two other girls, who were playing with my daughter, had said that Kanhu had abducted my daughter and taken her to Babuli Nayak,” he told media persons. The parents alleged that Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo was shielding accused Babuli Nayak, who allegedly abducted and murdered their daughter.
The missing leggings
The SIT went about the probe with the allegations of organ trafficking uppermost in its mind. However, it failed to get clues from any source including medical reports pointing to that. The missing leggings of Pari raised suspicion about the sexual abuse angle.
Bothra revealed everyone forgot to mark the small yet vital clue regarding the legging that was not found along with the frock near her body. This fact brought to the fore a possible sexual abuse of the girl. Bothra further claimed that the body of Pari was found naked while the dress she had worn on the fateful day was lying near her body. The SIT team found stain marks on outside parts of Pari’s dress. Bothra reasoned had she worn the dress at the time of her death then the stains would have been spotted in the inner side of the dress as well. However, there were no dirty marks found inside the dress. Recovery of the nude body of the girl substantiated the team’s suspicion on the sexual abuse angle.
Experts’ report on the stains on the frock finally established that these were semen marks. Later, the team started gathering a detailed profile of each member of the 120-odd families of the village. It found that more than one member of the families were present July 14, except for the accused. This revelation turned the needle of suspicion towards Sethi.
Bothra revealed that while checking up his mobile phone, the team came across a pop-up on the phone regarding a news report in connection with the rape and murder of a minor girl. The team started suspecting Sethi for searching such items on his phone.The Google search details were found deleted by the accused too. The accused allegedly refused to undergo polygraph test while all the villagers agreed to this.
