BHUBANESWAR: A court in Nayagarh has framed charges against the prime accused in Nayagarh minor girl’s rape and murder, over eight months after he was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for his alleged involvement in the heinous crime.
Additional Sessions Judge-cum-Children’s Court in Nayagarh on Thursday framed charges against the 17-year-old accused under Sections 376 A, 376 AB, 363, 364, 302 and 201 of IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act. The SIT had filed the chargesheet of the case under the above-mentioned sections of the IPC and POCSO Act on February 15, 2021.
Though the counsel of the accused had filed a discharge petition against SIT’s chargesheet, it was dismissed by the court. Sources said the prosecution will examine 72 witnesses including the investigating officer and scientific officers/experts during the trial of the case.
The five-year-old girl went missing while she was playing in front of her house in Jadupur village on July 14. Skeletal remains of the victim packed in a bag were found in the backyard of her house on July 23.
Nayagarh Sadar police station had registered a case on July 14 and the Crime Branch took over the investigation on November 25 last year.
The local police faced flak for carrying out a shoddy investigation of the sensitive case following which, the State government constituted the SIT headed by senior IPS officer Arun Bothra on November 28.
SIT then launched a thorough investigation into the matter and based on forensic, medico-legal and other evidence arrested the accused on December 20, 2020.