CBI recreates crime scene at Kotkhai

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 23

The CBI on Monday recreated the crime scene in the rape and murder case of a Kotkhai minor girl at the Baan Kufar forest in Kotkhai of the district amid tight security.

It was around 4.30 am that the police took the lone arrested youth from here to Kotkhai. The youth, whose identity has still been kept under wraps, was taken to three different sites, including the place from where the body was found, to a temple and to a shack near an orchard.

The face of the youth was covered with a black cloth to keep his identity a secret. However, some locals said the youth used to come to the area for wood cutting and hailed from Mandi.

Some even said very often he used to purchase liquor and at times would not even pay for it. The CBI team, accompanied by forensic experts, visited the site from where the body of the girl was found on July 6. She had gone missing on July 4 while on her way back home from school and the probe was handed over to CBI on July 23. The CBI took the accused to different places for almost four hours before taking him back to the state capital.

Though more than 150 police personnel had been deployed around the site of crime, the security staff had a tough time keeping the locals from converging too close to the site from where the investigations were done. Interestingly, some accorded a warm welcome to the team by garlanding them in the hope that the case would be finally solved.

The High Court has asked the CBI to submit the status report before it on April 25. So far the CBI has arrested only one person in the case though the possibility of some more being detained cannot be ruled out.

Accused taken to forest

• Around 4.30 am, the police took the lone arrested youth from Shimla to Kotkhai forest
• The CBI team, accompanied by forensic experts, visited the site from where the body of the girl was found on July 6.
• More than 150 police personnel were deployed around the site of crime