GUWAHATI: A senior officer of the Assam Police and three doctors of a state-run hospital were arrested in Darrang district for allegedly covering up the rape and murder of a 13-year-old tribal girl, police said on Tuesday.
The then additional superintendent of police of Darrang Rupam Phukan was arrested for allegedly taking a bribe from the accused, said a statement issued by the state CID.
Three doctors of the Mangaldai Civil Hospital -- Arun Chandra Deka, Ajanta Bordoloi and Anupam Sharma -- who had conducted the first post-mortem examination on the victim's body were arrested for "several commissions and omissions", it said.
The girl was found dead in June at a house in Dhula police station area where she worked as a domestic help.
The main accused, Krishna Kamal Baruah -- the owner of the house, was arrested and is at present in judicial custody.
Phukan, an Assam Police Service officer who was suspended earlier, had allegedly received Rs 1.5 lakh as bribe from the kin of the accused through the then officer-in-charge of Dhula police station Utpal Bora, the CID said.
He had tried to "screen" the accused person, it said.
The houses of Phukan and then SP of Darrang Rajmohan Ray are also being searched, it added.
Ray was earlier suspended, while Dhula's then officer-in-charge was arrested.
The CID said that the three doctors had written in their report that there were "no injuries except the ligature mark", and had "not mentioned about the continuations on the skull and the neck which were clearly brought out during the second post-mortem" of the body.
The second post-mortem, which was conducted after the body was exhumed on August 25, found that the death was "due to homicidal strangulation and not suicide".
The CID said no videography was done, and no proper procedure was followed during the first post-mortem examination.
"The doctors have clearly conspired to cause disappearance of the evidence with an intention to screen the offender and also to frame an incorrect record to save the accused," it said.
The CID had taken over the investigation after the intervention of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who visited the girl's house on August 12 and met her family.
The girl's family alleged that Dhula's then OC had put pressure on them to not file a complaint over the death.
The CID had filed a detailed charge sheet in the case on September 25.