Punjab Police make no headway in children's murder case

Muktsar, Jan 11 (UNI) Even as the Punjab Police has set-up a special Cell to trace 50-odd missing children in Muktsar district, it is virtually clueless about the murder of the four Bawaria children whose bodies were recovered on Tuesday night from an abandoned rice sheller here owned by former Faridkot Congress MP Jagmeet Singh Brar.

The Cell would be headed by a DSP, who would be assisted by one inspector, two ASIs and other constables to locate the missing children in the district in the age group upto 14 years.

Police investigations revealed that about 50 kids went missing during last year in the district.

Refering to the brutal murder of the four minor children, SSP, G Nageshwar Rao told mediapersons that he was confident that the case would be solved and the culprits would be brought to book. The four identified as Ashik (9) and Ratni (13) both girls and Satbir and Bholi, both boys of 10 years old had been missing from their homes on the outskirts of the town since mid-November last year.

Mr Rao further said the postmortem of all the four victims was completed last night at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot. After the postmortem the bodies were handed over to the parents for cremation.

To another question, the SSP said preliminary investigations revealed that the death of all the four children was due to strangulation. The postmortem had revealed that the children were sexually abused before being killed.

He further stated that about half-a-dozen persons including a woman who were yesterday rounded-up for investigation in connection with the murders, were left last night as nothing substantial was available against them. If required they will again be called for questioning, he added.

Meanwhile a three-member team of forensic experts, after completing their job and helping the district police in the investigations, left for Chandigarh last night.

Cremation of all the four bodies was held at the cremation ground here today morning. The district administration assisted the families of the deceased children in the cremation.

Deputy Commissioner Dalip Kumar and the SSP and other senior civil and police officers were present at the time of cremation.

Adequate security arrangements were made and no untoward incident was reported.

UNI