Around 60 days after a case was registered in the sensational rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl, the Puducherry police have filed a chargesheet in a local court against the two accused involved in the crime, after piecing together all the scientific, technical and other types of evidence gathered during the investigation.
The 572- page chargesheet was presented to V. Sofana Devi, Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, by the Investigating Officer in the Special Investigation Team, Lakshmi Soujanya, at the Puducherry District Court on Thursday. IPS officer R. Kalaivanan, who headed the SIT, was also present.
What started off as a ‘girl missing’ case on March 2 turned out to be a horrific crime after the partially decomposed body of the child was recovered from a drain near her house on March 5. On the day the body was recovered, two persons — Harikrishnan, alias Viveganandan, 56, and Kakka, alias Karnas, 19 — both known to the victim, and who were residing close to her house, were arrested on a host of serious charges.
The accused were charged under Sections 376 AB (punishment for rape on a woman under 12 years of age), 302 (punishment for murder), 367 (punishment for kidnapping a person with the intent to hurt), 368 (punishment for wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement, kidnapped or abducted person), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 201(punishment for causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (punishment for crime done by two or more persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Other charges pertained to Section 5 (j) (iv) (g) (m)/6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and Sections 3 (2) (v) and 3 (1) (w) (i) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“We have submitted a 572-page report, which contains 20 pages of charges with the remaining pages covering the investigation, including evidences, documents and forensic analysis. We have gathered all scientific and technical pieces of evidence. There are 75 circumstantial witnesses in the case, and their testimonies form part of the chargesheet. We hope to get the maximum punishment for the culprits,” a police officer who was part of the investigation told The Hindu.
