Jammu: A special police officer (SPO) who was assigned to find eight-year-old girl has been arrested by the Crime branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police for his alleged involvement in kidnapping and killing in Kathua district last month, police said on Saturday.
The girl’s body was recovered from the Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses.
“We have arrested SPO Deepak Khajuria for his involvement in the case of kidnapping and killing of the minor girl,” Additional Director General of Crime Branch, Jammu Range Alok Puri told PTI.
According to a report by the NDTV, a 28-year-old Khajuria, was also part of the search team to find the girl after she went missing.
“He was also part of the search party but he was not investigating the case. Now we know what was the motive,” said Mr Puri.
“He raped a murdered her after holding her captive for a week,” Alok told NDTV.
“We are taking services of the forensic science department to investigate the alleged rape,” he said.
With the arrest of the SPO, the number of arrests in the case has gone up to two.
Earlier, special investigation team (SIT), constituted by the state police, had arrested a 15-year-old boy and claimed the accused had strangulated the victim after she resisted his rape attempt. But after allegations of a botched up investigation and opposition parties repeatedly rocked the state Assembly, the case was handed over to the crime branch of the state police.
The government ordered suspension of an station house officer on January 20. The government has also ordered a magisterial probe in the case.
PTI inputs