The Madras High Court while hearing a petition on Monday filed by the mother of a 16-year-old Dalit girl gang-rape and murder victim from Ariyalur, slammed the police and prosecution for delays.
It has further directed the district police not to investigate the matter further.
Justice R Mahadevan has stayed all further proceedings relating to the case till April 24, reported A Subramani for The Times of India.
TOI reported that the judge also criticised the “unnecessary adjournments” in the investigation and granted interim relief to the prosecution.
The victim’s decomposed body was found on January 14 in a well after she went missing on December 29. The victim’s family alleged that her estranged boyfriend and his three friends were the culprits.
A Hindu Munnani functionary is one of the suspects in the case.
The victim’s family has maintained that that they had to run from pillar to post to get the investigation in the case started. They said the police began the investigations owing to pressure from activists and media.
“She had been abducted on December 29, 2016, and we had asked the Irumbulikurichi police station to file an abduction case, but they only filed a missing complaint. We met the DSP and SP repeatedly to start the investigation in the case,” the victim’s sister had earlier told The News Minute.
Police had arrested four people in connection with the case. But they suspect one more person was involved in the rape and murder of the minor girl.
“Rajasekar, the district secretary of Hindu Munnani, is also part of the crime. Manikandan was working with Rajasekhar, how can the crime happen without his knowledge? We have been told by many people in the village that he also knew about the crime in advance,” the sister had added.
The sub-inspector of Irumbulikurichi police station had earlier told The News Minute that, “On December 26, she was kidnapped by Manikandan, the main accused. Three days later, she was raped by him and three of his friends, and then thrown into a well in Keezha Maligai village.”
He added that the girl was one-and-a-half months pregnant when she was killed. “She was pregnant and wanted to get married to Manikandan. But he wanted her to get the child aborted, which led him to murder the girl,” he said.