Eight-year-old rape-and-murder victim Asifa Bano was held captive at a temple in Kathua before being murdered, DNA report has suggested.
Quoting sources, GNS news agency said the DNA test of hair strands recovered by the crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police from Devsthan temple in Rassana village has matched with Asifa’s hair.
One of the accused in the case had earlier confessed during interrogation that the girl was held captive at the temple.
“The crime site was searched and the hair strands were found and sent to Forensic Laboratory (FSL) New Delhi. The report confirmed that they were that of Asifa,” said the report.
The report was received by the crime branch on Tuesday along with the postmortem report which has also confirmed that sedatives were used to knock her unconscious.
An official of the crime branch, according to the report, said that the charge sheet will be filed after they receive the medical report.
Nine accused, including the alleged mastermind Sanji Ram – an ex-bureaucrat – and his son vishal Kumar, a police head constable, two SPOs and a sub-inspector of police, have been arrested in the case.
Sanji Ram, who according to the police is the mastermind in the abduction, rape and murder of minor girl, surrendered before the police on March 20. His surrender came after the arrest of his son Vishal – a BSc Agriculture student -from Meerut area of Uttar Pradesh.
Ram, said to be linked with the Hindu Ekta Manch, allegedly motivated special police officer Deepak Khajuria to kidnap, rape and murder the eight-year-old victim with the intention of driving out nomadic families of Muslim origin from Jammu’s Rasana village.
The girl was kidnapped on January 10, after which she was allegedly drugged and raped. Her mutilated body was recovered on January 17.
The Hindu Ekta Manch, an NGO backed by the BJP, has been demanding a CBI investigation into the incident. Others backing the demand are BJP ministers Chander Prakash Ganga and Lal Singh, besides minister of state in the PMO Jitendra Singh.