The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Friday, produced rape and murder accused, Rahul Rai, before a special court of Justice Anuj Kumar Gudia in Ranchi and sought a nine days’ extension to Rai’s judicial custody. The court will hear this case on Saturday. Arrested from Lucknow, the 23-year-old Rai is accused of rape and murder of an engineering student in Ranchi’s Booty More area on December 16, 2016 — a day the entire country mourned the death of Nirbhaya in New Delhi.
Nirbhaya was gang raped and mutilated in a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012. The utter brutality of the incident shook the nation. Four years later, the engineering student in Ranchi was raped and burnt alive on the fourth anniversary of the gruesome Nirbhaya incident. Neighbours found the semi-naked, half charred body of the student at her residence on the day of the incident. Soon media and activists started referring to the victim as Jharkhand’s Nirbhaya. Despite widespread protests and State Government’s intervention in the matter, her perpetrator could not be arrested. Later, the case was handed over to the CBI, which took more than a year to nab Rai.
Rai, a resident of Nalanda in Bihar, was already serving jail on charges of rape in Lucknow when the CBI took him in custody. According to sources in the CBI, he also faces charges in another murder case in Lucknow. The CBI, sources said, had done the DNA test of the traces of sperms found in the victim’s body. The DNA, they added, matched with the DNA of Rai’s mother. On this basis, the CBI nabbed Rai.
The CBI arrested Rai on June 22 from Lucknow and produced him before a court in Ranchi on Monday. The court had sent him on a five-day judicial remand. The case had particularly gained attention in Ranchi due to the brutality of the perpetrator and the cluelessness of the police.
Earlier, the case was investigated by the Ranchi police and the Crime Investigation Department (CID) but no breakthrough was made.
The police had conducted DNA tests on more than 80 suspects but none of the reports matched the DNA of the sperm traces found on the victim’s body. Cyber experts were also roped in by the State Government to scan through emails and social media conversations in order to get through to the perpetrator, but no evidence was found online.
On January 3, 2017, the State recommended the case for a CBI probe. A year later, the Centre approved the Government’s request leading to registration of FIR by the CBI on March 28, 2018.