Fresh twist in Badaun rape case: Is the CBI heading in the right direction?

The horrific rape and murder of two minor Dalit girls in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district has taken a fresh twist after sources have revealed that the CBI has found that the elder of the two girls was possibly in a relationship with the main accused, Pappu Yadav (18). But a matter of concern is whether this sudden twist will take the case forward or divert the attention of the investigators?

Fresh twist:

As per a report published in the TOI, the elder girl went along with her sister to meet Pappu, who had caller her to meet in the fields on the fateful night, as she wanted some money to visit a local fair. She had asked Pappu over phone to give her Rs 200. Sources added that a sweeper in the postmortem house had later found the two hundred rupee-notes in the clothes the teenager had on her person at that time. The sweeper had then given the money to the bereaved family of the victims and held back the information from the CBI.

Elder girl and the main accused had shared 297 calls in four months

The report further says that the investigators have the accessed the call records of the girl and found that they both had made 297 calls in the past four months. This is a very crucial revelation by the investigators as the family of the girls had denied of any relation between the girl and Pappu. Initially, the family had denied the girl had any mobile phone with her. Later the family admitted that she possessed a phone and submitted a mobile phone, broken into pieces, to the investigators.

The report further suggests that sources have informed the CBI that the family when got to know about the girl's relation with a Yadav boy had sent her to one of their relative's house some 15 kilometers away from their village. She was also admitted in a school there.

These two sensational revelations by the investigators will surely change the course of investigation and is set to give a fresh twist to the case which made international headlines. This development has made the case more complicated.

The CBI has conducted the polygraph test of the fathers of the two girls and waiting for the report.

Badaun rape case, the development so far:

Bodies of two minor Dalit girls were found hanging from a tree in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district on May 28, a day after they went missing. Their families alleged that the victims were gang raped and then murdered.

A case was lodged against seven persons, including two policemen, and all the accused were arrested by police and UP SIT after the state government faced severe criticism for deteriorating law and order in the state. All the accused, including Pappu, are under police custody.

After the rumours of possible honour killing started doing the rounds the girls' parents alleged that the allegations are a sham and a cover-up to save the actual culprits.

"Sharvesh (policeman) killed my niece to save Pappu and to implicate us they came up with the story of honour killing. Our girls didn't wear bangles but they planted broken bangles and beer bottles in the eucalyptus forest," the girls' uncle told reporters earlier.

Following widespread criticism the state government asked the Home Ministry for a CBI probe into the case. After taking the case, the premier investigating agency claimed that it was probing the rape and murder angle but is not ignoring the possibility of honour killing or property dispute behind the killing.

The CBI became suspicious after the fathers' of both the victims transferred Rs 1 lakh each to the two eyewitnesses' accounts.

The agency then called for exhumation of the bodies for a second autopsy because the post mortem report made the investigators skeptical over the findings of the autopsy as it said - ‘suggestive of rape', which holds no meaning in medico-legal cases.

Sadly, the bodies couldn't be exhumed as the delay led to submerging of the graves after the banks were flooded.

What will be the impact of new revelation?

The fresh revelation in the case has given a whole new twist to the investigation. The CBI needs to develop a flawless case but one still fears that this does not diverts the entire investigation to nowhere and the real perpetrators escape from getting punished.