GUWAHATI: The body of a 12-year-old Adivasi girl from Assam, who died under mysterious circumstances at the house of an Arunachal Pradesh MLA, was exhumed on Saturday.
The girl had died at the house of Janata Dal (United) MLA, Techi Kaso, at Naharlagun on May 20 and the body was buried at a cemetery in Assam’s Lakhimpur district without a post-mortem being conducted or an FIR filed. Her parents, who hail from Line No. 4 of Dolahat Tea Estate in Assam’s Lakhimpur district, have been working at the MLA’s house for 30 years.
“We exhumed the body yesterday (Saturday) and handed it over to the authorities in Arunachal for post-mortem,” Lakhimpur Superintendent of Police, Harekrishna Nath, said.
Earlier, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had recommended exhuming the body. An FIR was filed on June 1 after NCPCR and Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) had probed the matter.
NCPRC member Rosy Taba said they had recommended exhuming the body as it was buried without an autopsy. The idea was to know the cause of her death, she said. She also said that the police had made a mistake by not filing an FIR and taking the body for burial without conducting post-mortem.
The Arunachal police claimed the girl committed suicide but ASCPCR chairperson Sunita Changkakoti said, “The room where she had died was dismantled and the body was brought down before the arrival of the police. Also, the dupatta (veil), which she allegedly used to hang herself, was found burnt”.