Father may have burnt two Dalit children, suspects CBI

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 22

The case of two children belonging to the Dalit community being burnt alive in Sunpedh village of Faridabad district in 2015 has taken a new turn.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the CBI Special Magistrate in its final report that narco-analysis of Jitender, father of the victims, revealed that “he might have created the fire in his own house to take revenge on members of the Thakur community in his village”. The case would now be taken up on January 31.

The CBI relied on three forensic reports, narco-analysis, statements before Magistrate and polygraph tests of 11 accused, besides Jitender and his wife Rekha, to state that “there is no sufficient evidence” to launch prosecution proceedings against Balwant Singh, Jagat Singh, Adal Singh Rawat, Deshraj Singh, Naunihal Singh, Jogender, Sanjay Singh, Akash, Aman, Dharam Singh and Kartar Singh.

All of them had to remain behind bars for three months after the case was registered. The 12th accused in the case is a juvenile.

“From the beginning, we have been maintaining that our clients are innocent. The CBI has also said they have been falsely implicated due to a previous murder case wherein the complainant is involved. The CBI has failed to trace the murderer of the children,” said defence counsel Abhishek Singh Rana.

The CBI said Jitender and Rekha were not consistent in disclosing facts and circumstances in a sequence. “Finally, they admitted that they did not see anybody ignite the fire,” the CBI said in its report.

Jitender’s paternal uncle Jaichand and cousin Surender had also stated that Jitender did not disclose any name to them in respect of persons who ignited the fire. Forensic reports from Karnal, New Delhi and Hyderabad stated that “there is no forcible entry into the house and into the bedroom by any outsider”.

“All forensic experts are unanimous that the fire originated from inside the bedroom from the centre of the bed and the room was bolted from inside when the fire erupted. There was no indication of outsiders having come inside the room. There was no sign of disturbance outside the room,” read the report.

Sunpedh case file 

• On October 20, 2015, Jitender, his wife Rekha and their children — Vaibhav (2) and nine-month-old Divya — were asleep 

• Jitender alleged that between 2 am and 2.30 am, several persons entered their house by scaling the boundary wall and poured petrol on them

• He claimed that two of them set the children on fire and fled. Vaibhav and Divya were burnt to death; the case was handed over to the CBI on October 22, 2015