Rourkela: Police arrested Sunday a man who has been accused of raping and murdering a minor girl February 8. The deceased was staying in the house of the accused Bikas Bara for quite some time now.
A complaint of rape and murder had been lodged by the brother of the deceased, Marcus Rai. Police said that on the fateful day, taking advantage of no one being present in the house, Bikas raped the girl. When the victim threatened that she would disclose the matter to the accused’s wife, Bikas smothered her to death with a pillow. Then he hung up the victim with a cloth from the ceiling and fled the scene. When other family members returned to the house, they found the victim hanging from the ceiling. They informed Bikas, who feigned ignorance. The police were also informed. During the investigation, police found answers by Bikas quite contradictory. This prompted them to grill him. Also when the post-mortem report arrived, it was confirmed that the victim had been raped.
Meanwhile, Bikas left his house and disappeared, leading to police zeroing in on him as the prime suspect. Police finally managed to nab Bikas from a secluded place. He was produced in a POCSO court and remanded to police custody. Talking about the accused, IIC Brahmanitarang police station, Khitish Chandra Patra said, “He (the accused) has confessed to his crime. When he absconded, he became the prime suspected. Since then we have been searching for him and managed to arrest him.’
