CBI takes over probe in rape and murder case of 14-year-old student of Noida school

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe in a case of alleged rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl in a school in Noida's Sorkha village, officials said on Tuesday. The case was handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court on a plea of the girl's parents, who had alleged that their daughter's body was found hanging in a classroom of the Arya Kanya Gurukul Vaiddham in Sorkha village in Noida Sector 115, where she used to study, on July 3, 2020.

The institution is run by one Jayendra Acharya and his wife. The parents have alleged that Acharya had called them to the gurukul without informing them that their daughter had died. They have also alleged that upon their arrival, Acharya and his wife, with the help of unidentified goons, snatched their mobile phones and other belongings to ensure that no pictures were taken and took them to the classroom where their daughter was hanging.

Two separate FIRs were registered by the Haryana police and the Noida police on July 9 and July 17, 2020 respectively, six and 14 days after the incident. The parents of the victim approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court after no action was taken by the police in Haryana, where they had lodged a case of abduction, and in Uttar Pradesh, where they had got an FIR registered for the alleged rape and killing of their daughter. The parents said the condition in which the body was found showed that the victim was raped and killed.

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According to the FIR, Acharya forcibly sent the body for cremation without informing the police and later, conducted a "havan" in the classroom where the body was found to destroy all evidence related to the case such as the victim's slippers and dupatta with which her body was found hanging. The parents of the victim alleged that they were restrained in a classroom and forced to sign blank papers, without calling the police or sending the body for post-mortem.

The family members of the victim were packed in a vehicle and sent back to their village in Haryana with goons and instructions to stop only at the destination, they alleged. On the plea of the parents, a Supreme Court bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravi Kumar, in April this year, directed the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments to hand over the relevant case files and documents to the CBI within four weeks.

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"We have taken cognizance of the complaint made by the petitioner, who happens to be the mother of the deceased and who has lost her minor daughter of 14 years old at that point of time when the closure report was submitted by the investigating officer," the bench had said. The top court's order came on an appeal filed by the victim's mother against the high court order refusing to transfer the probe to the central agency. The girl's mother had alleged that it was a heinous crime of rape and murder, followed by abduction of family members. After the Supreme Court order, the CBI has re-registered the FIRs lodged by the Haryana police and the Noida police as its own cases.