Giving a new twist to the case of double murder involving two minor siblings in Rishikesh, police said while citing medical examination report that the younger sister aged around four years was raped before she was murdered by the accused Parvaan Singh, a sewak in a Grudwara.
The murder committed on Thursday had sent shockwaves across the state with the sewak being reported to have murdered the two sisters after the elder one aged around 13 years had kicked his turban while he was having a bath. Police had said on Friday after the accused was arrested that the younger sister had been smothered to death as she had screamed while seeing her elder sister being murdered. However, on Saturday, police changed its version of the case, saying that the younger sister was raped and murdered, though they failed to explain whether the rape/murder was committed after or before the murder of the elder sister. They also failed to say whether the elder sister too was subjected to sexual assault before she was murdered. Police said that the investigation being on, they were not in a position to say anything beyond the fact that the younger girl was raped and murdered.
Speaking of the case, SP Rural Sarita Dobhal said on Saturday that they would try to take the accused under their remand through the court’s order. “It would help us unravel the case,” she said. After post-mortem report came police added section 376 of IPC and sections 5/6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act have been added to the existing FIR lodged in the Rishikesh police station, she added. The accused Parvaan Singh had been sent to jail on Friday.
However, the murkiness still shrouding the case around two days after the double murder was committed is a pointer to how police are handling such cases. “Police were totally in the dark over the rape angle of the case when the accused was sent to jail. Things became a bit clear after a team of local government hospital doctors based in Rishikesh revealed that the younger daughter was raped and then strangled to death. They are still in the dark over whether the elder sister too was subjected to sexual assault before being murdered. Nor is there any clarity over whether the younger one was murdered before or after the elder was murdered,” said an observer.
Police had earlier claimed that the accused had decided to kill the elder one of the siblings after she had kicked his turban when he was taking a bath near the Gurudwara in the morning. later, as the younger one was heard screaming, she was smothered to death too by the accused, police had said.