Twenty-eight police personnel have been suspended after the skeletal remains of an 18-year-old woman, who had been missing for eight months, were found in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district, an official said on Sunday.
The woman’s remains, including bones and hair, were recovered on Saturday from an isolated area near Chas College in Phindragora police station area, Superintendent of Police Harvinder Singh said.
“A total of 28 police personnel, including the officer in charge of Phindragora, have been suspended for dereliction of duty in investigating the kidnapping and murder of the victim,” he said.
He added, “The suspended police officers colluded with the accused, and were even seen celebrating with him. They also violated confidentiality. The accused was also dealt with money. For this reason, the police’s image among the general public was tarnished.”
The accused was arrested after analyzing the victim’s mobile phone call detail records and other technical inputs, Singh said.
He added, “During the ongoing investigations based on technical, circumstantial, and humanitarian evidence, the accused confessed to committing the crime.”
He added, “The victim and the accused had been in contact for nearly three years. The woman was allegedly pressuring him to marry her, which prompted him to plan the murder.”
The officer said that on July 21 last year, when the victim went to Chas College to take admission in a university course, the accused met her and took her to an isolated place about 1.5 km away.
Singh said he stabbed her to death there, hid the body in the bush and disposed of the blood-stained knife on his way back.
The police said that after confessing to the crime, the accused led investigators to the scene, which led to the discovery of 19 bone fragments, hair strands, the victim’s clothing, and the murder weapon.
The victim’s mother filed a complaint on July 24, alleging that her daughter had been kidnapped.
Only on August 4 was a case registered against “unknown persons.”
The case later came under judicial scrutiny after the mother approached the Jharkhand High Court, which suspended Superintendent of Police Tadasha Mishra for allegedly assaulting a relative of the victim.
A bench headed by Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad Mishra questioned why a criminal case was not filed against the SP in connection with the alleged lapses.
