School girl’s rape & murder case drives Shimla into ugly protests

On Wednesday, one of the accused in the Shimla schoolgirl rape and murder case died in police custody and his death triggered massive violent protests in the city as the angry mob not only pelted stones at security personnel but also ransacked the police station.

The deceased, who belonged to Nepal and was lodged in the Kotkhai police station since his arrest last week along with five others, was allegedly strangled to death by the main accused in the case, Rajendra Singh, at around 3am on Wednesday. The Himalayan State, angered by the killing of an accused in the police station, set the police station on fire before pelting stones at the security personnel.

The crowd, of about 2000 people, entered the police station chanting ‘we want justice’ slogans and accused the police of new lapses. The angered mob even refused to let injured policemen get medical assistance by not allowing them to move from the police station to the hospital. The police had reportedly said that the killed accused had agreed to become prosecution’s witness in the case and that angered the mob to an extent that they set fire to police vehicles, police station and, reportedly, even set police records on fire.

Reports say, 4 Police personnel, including an Assistant Superintendent of Police were injured in the protest. The angry protesters also blocked the Hatkoti-Theog and the Hindustan-Tibet highways for hours leaving hundreds of people stranded.

The heart of the matter:

On July 4, a class 10 student went missing on her way home from school. Two days later, her naked body was found with injury marks in the woods near Kotkhai, about 55 kilometres from Shimla.

The police said the victim was sexually assaulted and murdered in an apple orchard before her naked dead body was left in the woods. The police arrested six people in the matter but the victim’s elder sister accused police of not capturing the real culprits. “Earlier, we were told that the accused belonged to high-profile families and they were on the run,” the girl’s elder sister told reporters in Kotkhai town. “Our protests will continue till the real culprits are apprehended,” she reportedly said.

Governor Acharya Devvrat and the state High Court has summoned the State Director General of Police Somesh Goyal and has sought a report on the case.